Red Panda
by Gerry Bishop
Meet Asia’s
OTHER panda.
YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT
Everybody knows and loves
those big, black-and-white
giant pandas, right? But there’s
another panda that most
people know little or nothing
about. It’s the raccoon-sized
red panda. Both animals are
called pandas, but don’t let
that fool you. The giant panda
is a bear, while the red panda
is in a group of its own. Red
pandas have no close relatives.
Red pandas and giant
pandas are alike in some
ways, though. Both live in
cool, misty forests near the
Himalaya Mountains of central
Asia. And both spend a lot of
time munching on a kind of
tough grass called bamboo.
Bamboo is a “low-energy”
food and very hard to digest,
and not just any animal can
survive by eating it. But
bamboo is plentiful where
red pandas live, so they have
evolved in ways that help
them make the best of it. To
find out how, turn the page.
NEPAL
INDIA
INDIA
CHINA
INDIA
BHUTAN
BURMA
(MYANMAR)
where red pandas live
Panda comes
from a word that
means “bamboo
eater.”
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KATHERINE FENG >
7
As a red panda scrambles
among the branches, its long
tail swings to and fro, helping
the animal keep balance.
Let the snowflakes fall! A red
panda’s coat is super thick
and warm. Even a red panda’s
paws are covered in furry
“mittens” (circle).
A WAY OF LIFE
Need to climb straight up a
tree trunk? It’s no problem
when you have sharp claws
and powerful legs.
If you ever travel to red panda land, you will probably have
to look up to spot one of these
little creatures. Red pandas live
almost full-time in the treetops.
And they have the right “tools”
for living there: cat-like claws for
gripping bark and short, powerful legs for climbing.
But, wait. If red pandas eat
mostly bamboo—a kind of
grass—what are they doing in
the treetops? The answer is that
bamboo grows very tall. And so
red pandas can reach the best
parts of the plant—the leaves
and the tips of young shoots—
by climbing trees.
Because even the best parts
KATHERINE FENG (8L) >; JUAN CARLOS MUNOZ/NATUREPL.COM
(8-9T) >; DR. AXEL GEBAUER/NATUREPL.COM (9 INSET) >
pack very little food energy, red pandas must spend
almost all of their awake-time
stuffing themselves. The rest of
the time, they just sleep or relax
to digest the rough meals.
A COAT FOR THE COLD
Winters can be bitter cold
where red pandas live. But the
pandas have everything they
need to survive that, too. Their
thick, furry coats hold in almost
all of the pandas’ body heat.
(Snowflakes that land on them
don’t melt!) And when the pandas sleep, they wrap their bushy
tails around their faces to keep
them warm. Even the bottoms of
their paws are covered in fur!
ROBERT MOIOLA/NATUREINSTOCK/ARDEA (9TR) >;
RÉGIS CAVIGNAUX/SCIENCE SOURCE (9B) >
Like a giant
panda, a red
panda has a
special kind of
wrist bone that
it uses as a
thumb to get
a good grip on
bamboo shoots.
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Time to check this little one’s weight.
But the cub keeps trying to climb out
of the bucket it’s in! “Sit! Stay!” the
caretaker seems to be telling the cub.
“Let it rain—we’re happy up
here!” High in the treetops,
red pandas find food—and
safety from animals that
might want to eat them!
MORE HELP ON THE WAY
HANGING ON
Scientists have found fossils of red pandas (or animals
very much like them) in many
parts of the world. But, as the
world changed over millions of
years, those animals died out.
Today, the only red pandas still
surviving are those in some
mountainous forests of central
Asia (see map on page 6).
Even those pandas are having a tough time. The forests
where they live are being cut
down for lumber and farming. And some red pandas
are being illegally hunted for
their beautiful fur coats and
tails. During the past 18 years,
the number of red pandas has
fallen from about 20,000 to
about 10,000.
But the good news is that
people are helping to stop
the illegal hunting and also
protecting the forests that red
pandas need.
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DR. AXEL GEBAUER/NPL/MINDEN PICTURES (10T; 10B); DREW ANGERER (11T, 11M, 11B)
“Check it out!” says a member of Nepal’s Red Panda
Network. He’s discovered a
place that a red panda uses
as a toilet. The smells tell
other pandas, “This is my
territory, so stay away!”
Wild red pandas are super
shy, and they’re experts at hiding
from people. That makes it hard
for scientists to study them in
their natural habitat. So some
scientists are helping red pandas
to breed and raise their babies at
zoos and research centers.
By studying these captivebred pandas, scientists are
learning a lot about the animals’ day-to-day needs and
habits. And that knowledge
could, for example, help scientists find, track, and observe
wild red pandas.
No one is learning more
about red pandas than the staff
at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front
Royal, Virginia (see photos on
this page).
Even in places like this, it’s
best if panda mothers raise
their cubs. So, many moms here
do. But when the moms need
help, human caretakers step in.
As you can see, these red pandas get the best of care. But all
this work is just the beginning.
There is still a lot to learn about
helping red pandas succeed in
the wild. =
Bye for now, Little Red.
We wish you well!
This cub
is loving
its special
red panda
formula.
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