Red Panda
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- This is an article for the Red Panda, a.k.a. Firefox. See Mozilla Firefox if you are looking for the web browser.
| Red Panda Status Endangered | ||||||||||||||
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| Ailurus fulgens |
Its Western name is taken from a Himalayan language, maybe Nepalese but its meaning is uncertain. One theory is that "panda" is an anglicization of "poonya," which means "eater of bamboo." Its Chinese name means "little panda," so called, not to distinguish it from the Giant Panda, but named after it. It is also commonly known as the Firefox and, because of its distinctive cry, the "Wah".
Like the Giant Panda, it eats large amounts of bamboo, but its diet also includes fruit, roots, acorns, and lichen, and captive Red Pandas readily eat meat. Red Pandas are excellent climbers, and forage largely in trees. Since the Red Panda mainly eats bamboo, it has a low-calorie diet which causes it to not do much more than eat and sleep.
The red panda has a digestive system more suited to a carnivorous diet, and cannot digest cellulose, meaning that it must eat a great deal of bamboo to survive. Red pandas are known to supplement their diet with young birds, eggs, small rodents and insects on occasion.
The Red panda has semi-retractile claws and a "false thumb", really an extension of the wrist bone. Thick fur on the soles of the feet offers protection from cold, and also hides scent glands.
Adults are largely solitary and mainly nocturnal. Females give birth to litters of one to four young (most often two) between mid-May and mid-July. The young are born fully-furred, but blind and helpless, and are weaned at five months of age. Sexual maturity occurs at age 18-20 months.
The species is endangered, largely because of habitat loss, though there is also some illegal hunting.
There are two subspecies of red panda: Ailurus fulgens fulgens and Ailurus fulgens styani. A.f. fulgens is a little smaller and its facial fur is much lighter; its range covers Nepal, Tibet, the Indian states of Assam and Sikkim, Bhutan and China. A.f. styani has more pronounced facial markings; it is restricted to northern Myanmar and some areas of China. The red panda depicted in the photo seems to be A.f. fulgens.
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