Discover interesting and fun facts about red pandas, from their unique diet to excellent climbing skills. Learn more about these adorable creatures.The red panda is a small predatory animal from the panda family. A short, pointed muzzle, a fluffy striped tail and chocolate-red fur: the fiery fox – that’s how this unusual animal was nicknamed in China back in the 13th century for its bright, cute appearance.
The red panda, with its thick, reddish fur, resembles a bear , although it is about the size of a domestic cat. Adults typically weigh between 8.5 and 17 pounds (3.6 and 7.7 kg) and measure between 22 and 24 inches (56 and 62.5 cm) in length (plus a 14 to 18 inch (37 to 47.2 cm) tail).
12 Fun Facts About Red Pandas You Must Love.
The red panda is a nocturnal creature
1. Lesser red panda– a rare, crepuscular mammal that lives in China, northern Burma, Bhutan, Nepal, and northeastern India. They are fairly small creatures, comparable in size to a domestic cat: body length is 50-64 cm, tail length is 28-48 cm, and weight is about 5 kg. Red pandas live an average of 8-10 years.
In China it is called the fire fox.
2. Few people knew about this! In China, the red panda is called the fire fox. The developers of the Mozilla company named the browser Mozilla Firefox and placed an image of a panda, not a fox, as the logo.
They are big sleepers
Red pandas tend to spend the day dozing in the treetops and become active at dusk, when they are busy looking for more food. The red panda may seem like a lazy animal , but it cannot digest cellulose, and since its diet is largely made up of leaves and bamboo shoots, it has adapted to having a slow metabolism.
Even so, a medium-sized red raccoon may need to eat around 3 kg of bamboo leaves and shoots per day if it does not eat other higher-calorie foods.
They don’t have thumbs
Red pandas do not have opposable thumbs per se, but they do have a long bone in their wrist that makes it easier for them to grip branches and bring food to their mouths, just like the giant panda. The red panda has semi-retractable claws that resemble those of felines.
Its tail performs important functions
The red panda’s long, furry, ringed tail provides extra grip and balance when climbing trees, where they spend most of their time. They can also curl their tail around their body to conserve heat in extremely cold conditions.
We are not afraid of either the cold or the wind
Red pandas have a soft, dense woolly undercoat covered with long, stiff guard hairs. Long, bushy tails help these arboreal animals maintain balance and protect them from the harsh cold and wind. Thick fur completely covers their paws, which have five widely spaced toes and semi-retractable claws.
Red pandas are experienced climbers
They use trees for shelter, to escape predators and to sunbathe in the winter. Their ankles are extremely flexible, and the fibula and tibia are attached in such a way as to allow the fibula to rotate around its axis. These features allow red pandas to nimbly climb tree trunks head-down and up rocks to escape leopards and jackals .
Interesting Fun Facts About Red Pandas
- The red and giant pandas did indeed once share a common ancestor, but this was millions of years ago.
- Like the giant panda, the red panda is found only in Southeast Asia (see interesting facts about the giant panda ).
- The red panda looks very much like a fox. By the way, the emblem of the popular Mozilla Firefox browser was supposed to be a red panda, but the designers decided that hardly anyone would recognize it, and replaced the panda with a fox.
- The small red panda is significantly smaller than the large one – it is approximately the size of a cat. The average weight of an adult small panda rarely exceeds 5-6 kg.
- The red panda has six toes on its front paws instead of five.
- The red panda feeds mainly on bamboo, berries and other plants. Strictly speaking, this animal is a predator, but the basis of its diet (over 90%) is plant food.
- On average, an adult red panda eats a quantity of food equivalent to one-third of its body weight per day.
- The main enemies of the red panda are humans and snow leopards. Moreover, humans are much more dangerous – it is because of them that the panda is in danger of extinction.
- Unlike giant pandas, their smaller relatives reproduce well in captivity, zoos and reserves.