The red panda (Ailurus fulgens) is a smaller relative of the well known giant panda. Like its larger relative, the red panda is a member of the order Carnivora, even though the vast majority of its diet is vegetable in nature. There is some argument as to whether pandas are more closely related to the raccoon family or to the bear family, but most experts think they belong to a family of their own. The wah is slightly larger than a large housecat, has rusty red fur, a long light and dark striped tail, a short white nose, and dark tear tracks. It is crepuscular (active around dawn and dusk) and scansorial (well adapted for climbing), spending much of its time in trees. Red pandas are called by many names. Some of these are: lesser panda, hun-ho, wah, and red cat bear.The red panda lives in the bamboo forests of the Himalayan mountains. Its range extends through Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet, Burma, and Sichuan and Yunnan provinces in western China. The panda lives at elevations from 2,000 to 4,800 meters. Here, the weather is cool and moist with a mixture of deciduous and coniferous trees, bamboo and rhododendrons.
In the wild, red pandas eat mostly bamboo leaves. They supplement this diet with berries, mushrooms, grasses and bark. Red pandas do eat some meat. They eat insects, bird eggs, bird nestlings, and may even catch an occasional mouse or bamboo rat. In zoos, wahs eat a specially formulated "panda biscuit" supplemented with cut fresh bamboo. The panda can grasp bamboo stalks with a specialized wrist bone called the radial sesamoid. This bone acts as sort of thumb. The wah's digestive system is like a carnivore's; it has a simple stomach and short intestine. This means it can not get the most from its low calorie diet. Wahs must spend a large portion of the day feeding. To help make up for this, they have a low metabolic rate.
To Learn More Much more information about red pandas can be found in the book Red Pandas, A Natural History by Dorcas MacClintock. This book was published by Charles Scribner's Sons in 1988. Its ISBN is 0-684-18677-2.
