Red Pandas

 The Red Panda is most active during twilight hours – that’s known as Crepuscular. They prefer temperatures in the 60s and 70s – if hotter they go in to a cave.

The Red Panda looks a little like a raccoon because of its facial markings. It is approximately 10 pounds when grown, give or take. That’s about the size of a large cat. Also, like the cat, they have partially retractable claws.

I think these little charmers are very cute! They have a thick coat of fur and a long fluffy tail with red and yellow rings on it. They blend into the trees they live in and are hard to see, also they are nocturnal which protects them in the dark. They sleep during the day. Their teeth are perfectly designed for eating bamboo, very sharp.

Their feet point in so that it is easy for them to wrap their arms around a tree. They display a “false thumb” – a part of their wrist which helps them to grasp things.When in zoos they will eat other things as well as bamboo such as apples and vegetables, If they don’t eat a lot of bamboo they run low on energy easily.

Predators include the marten and the snow leopard.

The female red panda usually bears only two cubs at a time and her reproductive cycle is long, therefore their survival is in question. If they lose a lot of population it would be difficult to replenish the species. At this time quite a few red pandas are bred and reared in zoos and these zoos work with conservation ecologists to sometimes re-introduce these pandas into the wild again.

Rusty the National Zoo's Red Panda escaped and was found again in June 23-24th, 2013.