The red or lesser panda is much smaller than the more well-known giant panda and more closely resembles a raccoon in size and appearance. Although their relationship to the Procyonidae (raccoons and their allies) and Ursidae (bears including the giant panda) has been debated for 150 years, red pandas are now believed to be in their own family, the Ailuridae, a separate offshoot of the ancestral bear-raccoon ancestral stock. The red panda has a shiny orange-red coat with black legs, and black underside and a long, ringed tail. The "tear-tracks" on its cheeks are believed to be important in interspecific communication.
There are two sub-species of red panda, one of which, A. f. fulgens, lives in the Himalayas and southern Tibet as far east as the Brahmaputra River. The other sub-species, A. f. slyani, is slightly larger and is found east of the Brahmaputra in southwestern China in Sichaun and Yunnan, and in northern Burma.
Red pandas live at an altitude between 6,000 and 12,000 feet in mixed deciduous forests with a dense canopy and bamboo understory. Females require tree hollows or other naturally occurring shelters for raising their young. Red pandas are scansorial, foraging on the ground primarily at night and sleeping in trees during the day.
Red pandas feed almost exclusively on bamboo. During the summer, they may also eat fruit, berries, fungi and seeds. They occasionally eat small animals.
The home range of the male generally overlaps that of more than one female. Except for the brief relationship between mother and young, red pandas lead solitary lives. A well developed olfactory communication system apparently serves to maintain spatial and temporal organization of home ranges. The female has one to three cubs, which reach sexual maturity at one and a half years of age. |