Save The Red Panda
About The Panda
Fast Facts
Type: Mammal
Diet: Herbivore
Average life span in the wild: 8 years
Size: Head and body, 20 to 26 in (50 to 65 cm); Tail, 12 to 20 in (30 to 50 cm)
Weight: 12 to 20 lbs (5.4 to 9 kg)
Protection status: Highly Endangered
1821 – The year when red pandas were discovered; in China red pandas are called firefoxes, because of their bright fur and resemblance with foxes;
- Claws of pandas are very sharp;
- The word “panda” means “bamboo eater”.
The red panda, also known as the Shining Cat or the Ailurus Fulgens, is dwarfed by the black-and-white giant that shares its name. These pandas typically grow to the size of a house cat, though their big, bushy tails add an additional 18 inches (46 centimeters). The pandas use their ringed tails as wraparound blankets in the chilly mountain heights.
The red panda shares the giant panda's rainy, high-altitude forest habitat, but has a wider range. Red pandas live in the mountains of Nepal and northern Myanmar (Burma), as well as in central China.
These animals spend most of their lives in trees and even sleep aloft. When foraging, they are most active at night as well as in the gloaming hours of dusk and dawn.
Red pandas have a taste for bamboo but, unlike their larger relatives, they eat many other foods as well, such as fruit, acorns, roots, and eggs. Like giant pandas, they have an extended wrist bone that functions almost like a thumb and greatly aids their grip.
They are shy and solitary except when mating. Females give birth in the spring and summer, typically to one to four young. Young red pandas remain in their nests for about 90 days, during which time their mother cares for them. (Males take little or no interest in their offspring.)
The red panda has given scientists taxonomic fits. It has been classified as a relative of the giant panda, and also of the raccoon, with which it shares a ringed tail. Currently, red pandas are considered members of their own unique family, the Ailuridae.
Red pandas are endangered, victims of deforestation. Their natural space is shrinking as more and more forests are destroyed by logging and the spread of agriculture.
For more information please visit
http://www.globio.org/glossopedia/article.aspx?art_id=13&art_nm=Red+Pandas
Fast Facts
Type: Mammal
Diet: Herbivore
Average life span in the wild: 8 years
Size: Head and body, 20 to 26 in (50 to 65 cm); Tail, 12 to 20 in (30 to 50 cm)
Weight: 12 to 20 lbs (5.4 to 9 kg)
Protection status: Highly Endangered
1821 – The year when red pandas were discovered; in China red pandas are called firefoxes, because of their bright fur and resemblance with foxes;
- Claws of pandas are very sharp;
- The word “panda” means “bamboo eater”.
The red panda, also known as the Shining Cat or the Ailurus Fulgens, is dwarfed by the black-and-white giant that shares its name. These pandas typically grow to the size of a house cat, though their big, bushy tails add an additional 18 inches (46 centimeters). The pandas use their ringed tails as wraparound blankets in the chilly mountain heights.
The red panda shares the giant panda's rainy, high-altitude forest habitat, but has a wider range. Red pandas live in the mountains of Nepal and northern Myanmar (Burma), as well as in central China.
These animals spend most of their lives in trees and even sleep aloft. When foraging, they are most active at night as well as in the gloaming hours of dusk and dawn.
Red pandas have a taste for bamboo but, unlike their larger relatives, they eat many other foods as well, such as fruit, acorns, roots, and eggs. Like giant pandas, they have an extended wrist bone that functions almost like a thumb and greatly aids their grip.
They are shy and solitary except when mating. Females give birth in the spring and summer, typically to one to four young. Young red pandas remain in their nests for about 90 days, during which time their mother cares for them. (Males take little or no interest in their offspring.)
The red panda has given scientists taxonomic fits. It has been classified as a relative of the giant panda, and also of the raccoon, with which it shares a ringed tail. Currently, red pandas are considered members of their own unique family, the Ailuridae.
Red pandas are endangered, victims of deforestation. Their natural space is shrinking as more and more forests are destroyed by logging and the spread of agriculture.
For more information please visit
http://www.globio.org/glossopedia/article.aspx?art_id=13&art_nm=Red+Pandas
