Physical Characteristics

Mass: 3 to 6 kg.
Though a member of the bear family, the red panda's physical appearance closely resembles that of a procyonid. These animals are approximately 42 inches (three and a half feet) long, with relatively long, furry tails. The tails are marked with about 12 alternating red and buff rings, and are not prehensile. Their head is round; the rostrum is shortened; and the ears are large, erect, and pointed. Long, coarse guard hairs cover the body, and the undercoat is soft, dense, and wooly. The body of the red panda is darker in eastern specimens. Its face is predominantly white with reddish-brown "tear" marks under its eyes. The fur on the upper side of its body is reddish-brown, while ventrally it is glossy black. Its legs are black, and the soles of its feet are covered with dense, white hair. There is no sexual dimorphism in color or size between males and females. The red panda's front legs are angled inward, leading to its waddling walk, and its feet are plantigrade.
The red panda has a robust skull. Its sagittal crest is poorly developed, its zygomatic arch is widely flared and highly arched, and its postorbital process is poorly developed. The palatines extend beyond the level of the most posterior molar, the mesopterygoid fossa is constricted anteriorly, and the auditory bulla is small. The post glenoid process is large and anteriorly recurved, and the alisphenoid canal is present.
The mandible is robust but relatively short, and the mandibular symphysis is constricted. The coronoid process is strongly hooked posteriorly, and the mandibular condyles are large.
The red panda's teeth are not bunodont as in other ursids. Premolar one and molar one and two are wider than they are long and have accessory cusplets. Each upper premolar has more than one cusp, and premolar three has a well developed paracone and hypocone.

Habitat

The red panda is found throughout the Himalayan mountains between 2,200 and 4,800 meters in elevation in northern Burma and the districts of western Sichuan and Yunnan. Their geographic range is bounded in the north by the Namlung Valley in the Mugo District and the Lake Rara region of northern Nepal, in the south by the Liakiang Range of western Yunnan, and the northern and eastern boundary is the upper Min Valley of western Sichuan. The red panda lives in temperate climates amongst deciduous and coniferous trees. There is usually an understory of bamboo and hollow trees. The average temperature is 10-25 degrees celsius, and the average annual rainfall is 350 centimeters.

Breeding and Behavior

Mating season is early winter. Births occur in the spring and summer, with most newborns arriving in June. Litters range from one to four young. The gestation period of the red panda is approximately 134 days. Females become noticeably heavy and lethargic around six weeks before parturition. Several days before parturition, the female begins to carry nest materials (sticks, grass, leaves) to a suitable nest site. In the wild, a nest may be a hollow tree or a rock crevice. In captivity, a box, hollow logs, or other artificial dens can serve as a nest. All births take place between 4 PM and 9 AM, which is the period of highest activity. After birth, females quickly clean their young and remain with them for 60 to 90 % of the time for the first few days. Mothers recognize their young by olfactory cues established shortly after birth. After one week, females spend more time away from the nest, returning every few hours to nurse and groom their young, and to keep the nest clean. The yo
Red panda's activity changes throughout the year based on the temperature, feeding regimes, and the presence of young. The normally solitary A. fulgens are most active at dusk, dawn, and during the night. Movement on the ground is done by a slow, cross-extension gait, and a faster bounding or trotting. Ailurus fulgens is arboreal, sleeping in nests in evergreens. They descend trees headfirst and display their flexibility as they move from branch to branch. The tail is used for balance when the red panda is in a tree, and while on the ground the panda carries it straight and horizontally. The red panda engages in several leisure behaviors after awakening or eating. It licks its whole body and limbs, washes its face with a forepaw or hindpaw, and stretches or rubs its back and abdomen against a stationary object such as a tree or rock.
The red panda also exhibits several visual displays during intraspecific interactions, including the arching of its tail and back, the slow raising and lowering of its head while emitting a low intensity puffing, the turning of its head while jaw-clapping, the shaking of its head from side to side, bipedal posture with its forelegs extended above its head, and staring.
If threatened, the red panda climbs a tree, or strikes out with its semi-retractile claw.

Population

IUCN Categories
• 1960's: -
• 1970's: -
• 1980's: -
• 1994: Vulnerable
• 1996: Endangered; (Criteria: C2a)
• 2000: Endangered; (Criteria: C2a)
• 2002: Endangered; (criteria: (C2a) (Last Assessed by IUCN: 1996)
Countries Where the Red Panda Is Currently Found:
2002: Occurs in Bhutan, China, India, Laos and Nepal. (IUCN 2002)
Population Estimates:
[Note: Figures given are for wild populations only.]
• WORLD
o 1999: "The IUCN estimates that fewer than 2500 mature individuals survive."
• China
o 1998: May be as few as 5 - 6000
o 1998: 6 - 7000 (Sichuan: 3000 - 3400; Yunnan: 1600 - 2000; Tibet: 1400 - 1600)
• Nepal
o 1994: May be as few as 300
o 1998: May have only a few hundred

Red panda conservation programs

Conservation

Recent field studies also provided vital new information about the red panda’s tenuous status in the wild. Prime red panda habitat is very similar in appearance and composition to the old-growth forests of our Pacific Northwest, and the consequences of disturbance are quite similar. A high canopy, composed of various species of conifers, most notably fir and hemlock, mixed with deciduous hardwoods, such as oak, chestnut, and maple, provides protection for a stable understory of rhododendron and bamboo. Clouds enshroud these forests for much of the year, promoting extensive growth of mosses and lichens on every possible surface. The densely packed intertwining root systems of this large amount of vegetation binds the soil on even the steepest slopes to maximize moisture retention and slow water runoff.
In recent years, however, this stable system has been profoundly disturbed by increasing human populations. People are logging the forests for building material and fuel, and their domestic animals consume understory plants and compact fragile montane soils. Even minor disturbance in this fragile habitat, such as clearing a small patch for agriculture, can initiate a familiar and devastating chain reaction: The impact of heavy seasonal rains falling through the canopy damages the soil and loss of interlacing root systems promotes soil erosion and rapid water runoff, which extends to downslope areas not yet directly disturbed. During the rainy season, brooks and streams become raging torrents that carry away precious mountain soils to distant plains.
Little of the remaining red panda habitat, even that in national parks and wildlife reserves, is spared this relentless degradation. For example, the 660- square-mile Langtang National Park in Nepal is believed to be that country’s largest bastion for red pandas. But 30,000 people also depend on resources within the park for their livelihood. These people strip and cut trees for building materials, forage for livestock, and fuel for cooking, tourism, and cheese production. Not only do these activities eliminate food, shelter and nesting areas for red pandas, and other wildlife, but hunting and the depredations of feral dogs also take a considerable toll on the red panda population. We suspect the same scenario is being played out elsewhere in the red panda’s range. Zoos have taken a special interest in the study and conservation of red pandas. At present (1992), about 85 zoos in the world hold more than 300 red pandas and in the last two decades more than 300 have been born in zoo
This sort of global conservation effort, linking the international zoo, academic, wildlife management, and political communities, requires an enormous amount of time, energy, and money from many sources. But our efforts seem to be paying a modest dividend. At the International Giant Panda and Red Panda Conservation Workshop held in
Washington in June 1991, biologists from 14 countries met to review red panda status and biology and to forge a strategy for integrating field and zoo-based research and conservation efforts. Several priority projects identified at this workshop are now underway. Field studies in Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim, and Sichuan are examining the exact status and quality for remaining red panda habitats and the nature of the human-environment-animal interactions occurring in them. Other studies are assessing the levels and rate of loss of genetic variation in wild populations, and zoo and wildlife biologists native to countries where red pandas are found are being trained in the research, management, and husbandry techniques necessary to preserve wild and zoo populations. To borrow a couple of terms from Cuvier, we hope that these and other measures will help create a bright and shining future for the red panda.

the International Red Panda Management Group (IRPMG)

Fortunately, more organizations are taking an interest in the red panda. Since determining the population in the wild has been difficult for biologists, zoos have implemented captive breeding programs, which have shown success over the years.
In 1992, 85 zoos in the world had more than 300 red pandas (Roberts, 1992). The Red Panda Species Survival Program (SSP) of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association administers the red panda population in North American zoos. The SSP manages matings, studbooks and long-term plans for red pandas and similar programs are growing in Japan, Europe, Australia and China. In addition, the International Red Panda Management Group (IRPMG) was created to help bring together these programs along with world government and non-government agencies (Roberts, 1992). The thought here is if enough people are aware of the panda's plight, more can get accomplished to help the species.
For a cute, furry animal with not much purpose in nature, red pandas have come to be regarded as unique in the species conservation arena. Over the years, researchers and biologists have found the red panda, with its beautiful red coat and reserved manner, to be an enigma that they cannot get close to in the wild. The red panda ancestry issues also makes for a lively debate in the scientific world. There is a tenuous glass wall between pandas, including the giant panda, and a solution to meeting the needs of both is difficult. However, as more agencies and countries become involved and knowledgeable in panda conservation, the "panda plight" will take a positive turn and we will have the delightful pandas around for centuries to come. I leave you with an excerpt from the book, "Pandas", by Chris Catton:
"The totally wild panda living in blissful isolation and free from all human interference has probably gone forever. With it goes a small part of what is most beautiful about our planet - the mystery of how life with its intricate and delicate webs of interaction sustains itself. ... A truly certain future for the panda will require a great change in public awareness, but the path has been marked out and it is now simply a matter of deciding whether or not we want to make the journey."

adopt a red panda