The Red Panda

Description: The red or lesser panda is much smaller than the more famous giant panda and more closely resembles a racoon in size and appearance. Although their relationship has been debated for 150 years, red pandas are thought to be related to raccoons while giant pandas belong to the bear family. The red panda has a bright orange-red wooly coat with black legs, and black underside and a long, ringed tail. It has a white face with orange-red "tear-tracks" on its cheeks.

Range: There are two sub-species of red panda, one of which, A.f. fulgens, lives in the Himalayas. The other sub-species, A.f. styani, is slightly larger and is found in southwestern China in Sichaun and Yunnan, and in northern Burma.

Habitat: Red pandas live at an altitude between 3,000 and 12,000 feet in forests with dense bamboo growth. Females require tree hollows or other naturally occurring shelters for raising their young. During daylight hours, they can be found sleeping in trees.

Diet: Red pandas almost exclusively feed on bamboo. During the short growing season, they may also feed on fruit, berries or seeds. They occasionally eat small animals and, rarely, domestic crops.

Social Organization: Red pandas are largely nocturnal in habits. Except for the brief relationship between mother and young, they lead solitary lives. The female has one to three cubs, which reach maturity at one and a half years of age.

Conservation Status: The red panda is listed as CITES Appendix II and is a protected species in Nepal and China where it is considered endangered. Its numbers in the wild are not known, but estimates and assessments of its habitat indicate that it is rapidly declining.

Threats to Survival: Habitat destruction is the main threat to the red panda. China and Nepal have rapidly growing human populations and their need for timber, fuel and grazing land causes widespread losses of forested land that supports bamboo undergrowth. Even in national parks and reserves, livestock grazing and timber extraction are destroying bamboo at an alarming rate. Young pandas are killed by domestic and feral dogs, while poachers hunt them for the fur and pet trades. While bamboo flowerings, which cause large areas of bamboo to die, have been a cause of concern, man-made factors are a greater concern for the long-term survival of the species.

Conservation: Part of the red panda's range overlaps with that of the giant panda, so giant panda conservation programs provide some benefit to the red panda. While it has protected legal status over most of its range, these measures are not stringent enough or enforced sufficiently to provide real protection. A recent study in Nepal helped identify many of the factors