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The Red Panda, or firefox, is often referred to as thele sser panda in defer ence to the better-known giantpanda. Others prefer first panda Western scientistsdescribed it 50 years earlier, and gave pandas their name.Few people outside its native habitat have even heard of the red panda, let alone seen one.

The Two Sub-species of the Red Panda

The red panda has been previously classified in the families Procyonidae (raccoons) andUrsidae (bears), but recent research has placed it in its own family Ailuridae, in superfamilyMusteloidea along with Mustelidae and Procyonidae. Two subspecies are recognized:

Ailurus fulgens fulgens: Found in Nepal,northeastern India (West Bengal, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh), Bhutan, and part of China.

Ailurus fulgens styani (also known as a. f. refulgens ): Only found in China (in the HengduanMountains in Sichuan and the East Nujiang River of Yunnan Province) and northern Myanmar.

The head and body length of red pandas averages 56 to 63 cm (22 to 25 in), and their tails about37 to 47 cm (15 to 19 in).

Behavior

Red pandas are generally solitary, but there are a couple of exceptions to the rule. First, young

red pandas grow relatively slowly, so they develop extended associations with their mothers thatlast for over a year. Second, red pandas have short relationships during the annual breedingseason.

In terms of their ranging patterns, red pandas behavemuch like larger carnivores. They tend to have overlapping home ranges in which the individuals
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rarely interact with each other. This may seem odd, since red pandas mostly eat bamboo.However, red pandas search for the most tender bamboo shoots and leaves, and these primespecimens may be patchily distributed not unlike the prey of larger animals such as junglecats. In effect, the red pandas habits reduce overcrowding and overuse of shared resources.

The home ranges of female red pandas often measure about one square mile, while males canlive in areas twice that size. Male home ranges frequently overlap with at least one female homerange and sometimes expand during the breeding season. Because red pandas constantly need

to conserve energy, they only cover 650 to 1,000 feet of their home ranges per day and about25% of their home ranges per month.

Red pandas have several ways of marking their territories and home ranges. These includeurine, secretions from anal glands, and scents from glands on the pads of their feet. They havealso been known to use communal latrine sites to stake out territory and share information withothers. In addition, red pandas often communicate using body language (such as head bobbingand tail arching) and a variety of noises (such as a threatening huff-quack and a warningwhistle).

(Image from Tambako the Jaguar on Flickr )

Food

The red pandas diet is very unusual for a mammaland consists mostly of bamboo. When the weather is warm enough, they also eat insects andfruit. Although the giant panda eats almost every part of the bamboo plant (except the roots), thered panda only eats the youngest, most tender shoots and leaves. In addition, the red pandachews the bamboo thoroughly, whereas the giant panda hardly chews at all. The red pandas

preference for bamboo is apparently an ancient adaptation, as indicated by fossils of similar animals that have been found in Eastern Europe and North America . These specimens dateback to the Miocene (25 to 5 million years ago) and Pliocene (5 to 2 million years ago) periods,leading scientists to believe that bamboo and red panda-like animals have historically beenfound in many areas of the planet. It is likely that the range of the bamboo has increased and
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decreased with changes in global temperature and moisture, and fortunately for the red panda,bamboo still thrives in many parts of the southern Asia.

The red pandas dietary specialization has an profound impact on the animals daily life. For onething, bamboo is very high in indigestible fiber, making it extraordinarily difficult for red pandas toextract the nutrients that they need. Cows, horses, and other herbivorous mammals normallyhave very strong teeth and extra fermentation chambers in their guts. However, while red pandashave large teeth, their guts are not specialized to handle plant matter. In fact, red pandas only

extract about one quarter of the nutrients from bamboo, and food passes through their digestivetract quite quickly. That means that many red pandas lose as much as 15 percent of their bodyweight during the winter, when their other preferred foods (such as insects) are not readilyavailable.

To cope with the lack of food during the winter months, red pandas have evolved several ways of meeting their energy demands. For instance, red pandas can spend as much as 13 hours a daylooking for and eating bamboo. They also have a very low metabolic rate (almost as low assloths), and can slow their metabolism even further in colder temperatures. Finally, their thick fur covers their entire body, including the soles of their feet, allowing them to conserve their bodyheat.

(Image from Tambako the Jaguar on Flickr )

Population & Protections

Protecting the red panda goes hand in hand withprotecting its habitat. In the past, the dense root systems and undergrowth of Nepals forestscould be relied upon to retain moisture and slow water runoff. Recently, however, logging andother forms of forest degradation have upset this balance and sent rich soil cascading downmountainsides with the annual monsoons. Many Nepalese people count on the red pandashabitat for their survival, and this problem cannot disappear on its own. For example, LangtangNational Park in Nepal is considered to be an important area for red pandas, but 30,000 peoplelive near the park and depend on its resources. The reality is that these people are not opposedto change. Rather, they lack viable economic alternatives. By working directly with the people of
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the PIS Corridor, we aim to create a new system in which conserving the red pandas primehabitat will actually benefit the surrounding communities.

The exact size of Asias red panda population is currently unknown, but zoos around the worldhave taken up the call preserve the species. More than 80 zoos currently have red pandas ( findout your nearest zoo here ), and almost all of them participate in a management program toensure the survival of a viable zoo population. In North America, the red panda populationmanagement program is called the Red Panda Species Survival Program (SSP). The SSP

keeps a studbook of all red pandas on the continent, determines which animals should be mated,and develops long-term research and management strategies for the species. Other management programs have been created in Japan, Europe, Australia, and China.

(Image from FurryScaly on Flickr )

Life Cycle

Red pandas have a long gestation period (roughly135 days) for an animal that weighs only 11 pounds at maturity. They also have small litters,

producing about two cubs on average.Despite the amount of food that red pandas eat, they grow quite slowly, reaching adult size after 12 months. The young become sexually mature at 18 months.

As a result of these characteristics, red pandas have a slow rate of reproduction and have a greatdeal of difficulty recovering from population declines.

(Image from National Geographic )

Habitat & Range

Red pandas have a large range that extends fromwestern Nepal to northern Myanmar. The species also lives throughout mountainous areas of southwestern China (Yunnan, Sichuan and Xizang provinces) at elevations between 4,900 and13,000 feet.
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Red pandas only live in temperate forests in the foothills of the Himalayas. The temperature inthis region is generally cool, and there is li ttle annual variation. The southern slopes of themountains trap the water from seasonal monsoons, supporting forests of firs, deciduoushardwoods, and rhododendrons. A bamboo understory grows in these forests and provides thebulk of the red pandas diet. However, these swaths of bamboo are only found in narrow bandsthroughout the red pandas range. Thus, although red pandas are distributed across thousands of miles of territory, they are restricted to these small, fragile areas because of their dependence onthe bamboo plants.

(Photo by Red Panda Network)

Source: Red Panda: The Fire Cat by Miles Roberts (ZooGoer 21(2), 1992).

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