International Red Panda Day!
Today is International Red Panda Day!
What is a Red Panda?
Well let us tell you! The red panda is an elusive and mysterious mammal of the biodiverse Himalayan forests. They have also been called the "firefox", “lesser panda”, and “red-cat-bear”— the red panda has many nicknames. The Red Panda Network prefers to call them "first panda" and "original panda" as western scientists described it 50 years before the giant panda, and gave pandas their name.
Red pandas are smaller than many people expect, since their name is often associated with the giant panda. In fact, they typically only grow to about the size of a house cat, though their big, bushy tails add an additional 18 inches to their size. They have a taste for bamboo but, unlike their larger relatives, they eat many other foods as well—fruit, acorns, roots, and even eggs. Like giant pandas, they have an extended wrist bone that functions almost like a thumb and greatly aids their grip when climbing.
Red pandas are native to the Himalayas in Nepal, India, Bhutan, Myanmar (Burma) and southern China. Red pandas inhabit the eastern Himalayan temperate broadleaved forest with bamboo in the understory* with an altitudinal range preference of 2400-3900 m. Red pandas spend most of their lives in trees and even sleep aloft. When foraging, they are mostly nocturnal but they also forage in the gloaming hours of dusk and dawn.
*The understory is the underlying layer of vegetation in a forest or wooded area, especially the trees and shrubs growing between the forest canopy and the forest floor.
Why is International Red Panda Day Important?
With the decline of available opportunities to live and thrive in their natural habitat, Red Pandas are struggling. International Red Panda Day hopes to encourage people to learn about these adorable creatures and help save the biome in which they live.
Due to the encroachment of human activity and expansion, these adorable creatures are experiencing a loss of nesting trees and bamboo, leading to a decline in the population. With less than 10,000 in the wild efforts are doubled every year to help the Red Pandas.
How Can You Help?
There are a lot of ways you can help, ranging from simply telling a friend to traveling to the place where the Red Panda is native. Try these ideas to help out:
Visit Red Pandas at a Local Zoo
Head to your local zoo and support those who are helping to save the lives of these lovable creatures and their habitats. But do be sure to keep your eyes peeled–these little guys can be a little bit hard to spot. Spending a lot of their time in trees, they are often difficult to see in their enclosures at the zoo.
Learn Fun Facts About Red Pandas
Red Pandas spend approximately 55% of their days sleeping. They are most active early in the morning, when they tend to forage for breakfast.
Typically solitary creatures, Red Pandas prefer to live and dwell alone, Red Pandas don’t usually gather together for social reasons but only join together in pairs during breeding seasons, when they communicate through body language such as head bobbing or tail arching.
Red Pandas are not actually bears. In fact, they are the only living members of their taxonomic family, the Ailuridae family. This means they are not actually related to Giant Pandas, but they do have a few things in common with them, including their propensity to eat bamboo. Really, they are more like racoons than bears.
Red Pandas love snow. In fact, because of the contrast between the color of their fur and the snow, a wintery day may be one of the best times to be able to spot a Red Panda in their outside habitat at the zoo.
Take a Red Panda Ecotrip
Join together a love of travel with a way to help these little animals. Red Panda Network offers Eco Trips, which allow participants to visit one of the most biodiverse places in the world and become educated on the needs to prevent forest exploitation. Enjoy a small group experience and local hospitality while participating in community-based conservation efforts. Plus, these trips will offer opportunities to see Red Pandas in the wild! After the trip, come home and tell others about the plight of the Red Panda and become an advocate to help others see the need. It’s a win-win!
Adopt a Panda
Your symbolic adoption will go directly to the conservation of red pandas and many other unique and threatened species who live here including clouded leopards and Himalayan black bears.
Donate to the Red Panda Network
Your gift will support community-based research, education, habitat protection and restoration, anti-poaching and sustainable livelihood programs.