Red panda Ailurus fulgens
Panda, bear, or something else?
The extraordinary diet and unique position of the red panda in the animal kingdom
The red panda in a nutshell
- eats
- bamboo, grasses, roots, fruits, larvae, eggs, small animals
- inhabits
- South and Southeast Asia
- excels at
- eating
Red pandas (also known as lesser pandas) can be recognised by the red colouring of their coat. The adults have tail rings, which they develop over time. The young are also lighter in colour than their parents.
Carnivore or herbivore?
Although the red panda has a digestive system suited to being a carnivore, it mainly eats plants such as bamboo. In order to digest all these plant fibres, the composition of microbes in the red panda’s gut has had to adapt to its diet. Even so, red pandas obtain very little in the way of nutrients from bamboo. For this reason, they eat for up to thirteen hours a day, consuming 30% of their own body weight. They get water from their food, or by licking it off their paws.
Tree dweller
Red pandas live mainly in trees. When they climb down from a tree, they descend head first. The soles of their feet are covered with white hairs to enhance their grip on the branches. Red pandas make their nests in hollow trees or in notches in rocks.
The red panda is endangered due to the increasing disappearance of their habitat due to deforestation, as a result of which there is no longer enough bamboo for them to survive. Red pandas are also hunted for their fur.
Panda or not?
Despite their name, red pandas are not related to the giant panda. The latter actually belongs to the bear family, while the red panda has its own family: the Ailuridae, or lesser pandas. Evolutionarily, the red panda is actually more closely related to raccoons than to bears.
