English Text 8 - Descriptive Text

Red Panda

Red pandas or taxonomic name is Ailurus fulgen, also called firefox or lesser panda is a small arboreal mammal and the only species of the genus Ailurus. Red pandas have red and black thick fur with black foot. Its tail is long with 12 red rings and brown. It eats mainly bamboo, but is omnivorous and may also eat eggs, birds, insects, and small mammals. Its activities are happened mainly in the morning or afternoon. The Red Panda is found mainly in temperate forests in the Himalayas, especially in the foothills of western Nepal, southern Tibet, Sikkim, Assam and Bhutan, in the northern mountains of Myanmar, and in southern China in the provinces of Sichuan (Hengduan Mountains) and Yunnan (Gongshan Mountains). It may also live in southwest Tibet and northern Arunachal Pradesh, but this has not been documented. The Red Panda has become extinct in the Chinese provinces of Guizhou, Gansu, Shaanxi and Qinghai.

The Red Panda is 79 to 120 cm long, including the tail length of 30 to 60 cm. Males weigh 4.5 to 6.2 kg and females 3 to 4.5 kg. It is very heat sensitive, with an optimal “well-being” temperature between 17 and 25 °C and cannot tolerate temperatures over 25 °C.

Red Panda adults rarely interact in the wild except to mate. Both sexes may mate with more than one partner during the mating season. A few days before the birth, the female begins to collect material, such as brushwood, grass, and leaves, to use for the nest. The nest is normally located in a hollow tree or a rock crevice.