Species Spotlight
Red Pandas
51-63.5cm in length plus a 28-48.5cm long tail. Between 3.2-15kg in weight
High-altitude forests of the Eastern Himalayas in China, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, and India
Mainly bamboo (95% of their diet), but occasionally fruit, roots, insects, bird eggs and small lizards
Nocturnal/crepuscular (active at twilight) and solitary
Snow leopards, martens, birds of prey
8-10 years in the wild but up to 24 in captivity
Habitat loss and poaching. Other threats include disease, natural diseases, climate change, and free-roaming dogs
Endangered
Names & Nicknames: Red panda, Lesser panda, Red-cat-bear, Firefox, Himalayan racoon, Bear-cat, Shining cat
Size: Red pandas are about 51-63.5cm (head to butt) and can weigh 3.2-15kg, pretty similar to a house cat. However, one big difference between them and a cat is their 28-48.5cm long bushy tail – almost the size of another house cat on top!
Smell: Red pandas speak mainly through scent. They have special glands on their feet to leave smelly marks to communicate with any neighbouring red pandas. However, this colourless liquid is actually odourless to humans! So they communicate with each other incognito.
Communication: Red pandas are solitary so they spend most of their time on their lonesome. When they do meet up they communicate with a series of body movements and sounds like arching their tails, bobbing their heads, squealing, or making a noise known as a huff-quack, a mix between a pig snort and a duck quack. (Try it with your friends next time you see them.) Sometimes, they stick their tongues out just like a snake or a lizard to collect scent particles and to suss out their surroundings.
Favourite Hangout: Heights are no problem for these intrepid explorers. Red pandas are arboreal, meaning that they spend most of their time up in trees, mostly across high-altitude forests in the Eastern Himalayas.
Favourite Snack: They hate falling into the stereotype, but their favourite snack is bamboo. They'll occasionally snack on fruit, roots, insects, bird eggs and small lizards, though 95% of a red panda's diet is their favourite fast-growing plant.
Eating Habits: Their love of bamboo is likely why red pandas and great pandas share the panda name despite not actually being very closely related – in fact, the red panda is more closely related to a skunk or weasel. Similar to great pandas, though, reds were once carnivores that evolved into their new bamboo diet. They also developed small thumb-like appendages (basically an extended wrist bone) that help grip their dinner and new gut microbes that can break down harmful cyanide found in bamboo.
Toilet Humour: Because red pandas only recently evolved to feed on bamboo, they still have a short, simple digestive tract like many other carnivores. Because of this, red pandas need to poop… a lot. Around 40 times a day on average, and in just one week, they can poop out the equivalent of their body weight.
Love Language: Winter is the season of love. Red pandas begin by spraying scent markings on their surroundings to start signalling they're ready to date. If a male and a female have smelt each other, they may start flirting with a series of chirps and tweets. Once they finally meet for the first time the male has to see if the female is in the mood by smelling her poop – not a move we would recommend for your next date. The female will also signal that she's ready by flicking her tale and basically putting up with the male in her space, and when it gets closer to making some baby pandas, the couple will chase each other back and forth, followed by some playful wrestling, licking, and biting before all this foreplay gets too much, and it's time to spring into action.
If you see them: If you come across a red panda, keep your distance and observe it quietly so as not to stress it out. These furballs are solitary animals and often very shy, meaning that they spend most of their time alone.
Red Flags: Red pandas face several main threats, like habitat loss, climate change, and disease. Another major threat is poaching and hunting for their meat and fur, and to be sold into the illegal pet trade. We'd all like to cuddle with a red panda, but these wild animals belong in the forest, and they would be much happier being left alone.
Epic Journeys: Red pandas migrate in a special way: vertically (up and down). No, they can’t fly... but they will travel to higher altitudes in the summer when it is warmer to stay cool and then back down to lower altitudes in the winter to stay warm.
Glow-up: Red panda cubs are born blind, deaf, and furry in nests made of twigs and grass. They spend their first three months in these nests, being looked after by their mother before venturing out. Their mothers will continue to look after them for another three to five months before they're ready to go off and face the world on their own.
Facts: Just like us, red pandas have been known to use travel pillows. To help cope with their frosty forest homes (they can survive temperatures as low as -7 degrees C) they use their long bushy tails to wrap around their bodies to keep them warm and lay their head on to help them sleep. Ingenious.
Who are they in the friendship group: They like their me-time and a good cosy nap.
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