Red Panda
Basic Information:
Scientific Name: Ailurus fulgens
Habitat: Red Pandas live in the temperate forests of Nepal, Bhutan, and northeastern India.
Diet: Red pandas mainly eat bamboo, but also small mammals, birds, and insects.
Size: About 1 foot high / 3 to 4 feet long
Weight: 10 to 20 pounds
Lifespan: 8 to 10 years in the wild. About 15 to years in human care.
Distribution Map:
I.U.C.N. Conservation Status:
What does this mean?
Endangered – a species determined by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (I.U.C.N.) to possess a very high risk of extinction as a result of rapid population declines of 50 to more than 70 percent over the previous 10 years (or three generations), a current population size of fewer than 250 individuals, or other factors.
Our Red Panda:
Mei Lin (Female) – Born 2019
About Red Pandas:
Red Pandas are usually found in the northern to west provinces of China, Nepal, India and Tibet. They can easily be distinguished by its unique ruddy red coat color. Their coat helps them blend into the canopies of Fir trees where the branches are covered in reddish-brown moss and lichens. Adult Red Pandas weigh be-tween 8 to 13 pounds and are usually 22 to 24 inches long in-cluding their tail. Red Pandas consume virtually every above-ground part of the bamboo culm (including the woody stem). Bamboo constitutes 85% to 90% of their diet. In human care, red pandas can be active anytime of the day but they are primarily crepuscular (most active at dawn and dusk).
Did You Know?!
- Red pandas share the giant panda’s “thumb”, a modified wrist bone, that is used to help grasp bamboo when feeding.
- Red pandas are generally solitary animals, except during mating season.
- Females give birth to 1-4 young after a 4 month gestation.
- They have a pseudo-thumb, a modified wrist bone used to grasp bamboo when feeding.
- Red pandas have a soft, dense woolly undercoat covered by long, coarse guard hairs that cover their entire body, except their noses.
- Red Pandas can live up to 23 years.