When we talk about pandas, the first image that comes to mind is one of the giant pandas🐼 (Ailuropoda melanoleuca), a famous black and white icon around the world. More discrete by its size, the red pandas are also quite fascinating, and not just in anime movies. The red panda, 𝘈𝘪𝘭𝘶𝘳𝘶𝘴 𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘴 Cuvier, 1825, also sometimes referred to as the lesser panda, is a species native from southwestern China and the eastern Himalayas, including northeast India, Bhutan, and Nepal.
They are forest inhabitants where they usually live in low densities within patches of forests🌳 that are increasingly fragmented due to human activities; mainly restricting them now to habitats located near steep slopes in mountain forests. Their low density is also the result of their highly territorial and solitary behaviours, meaning that individuals usually remain alone except during the mating season. Being territorial, they use their scent in marking territories using their anal glands and urine, as well as scent glands on their footpads💦.
Red pandas are famous for their dense reddish-brown fur, their large patch of black fur on their ventral side (belly), legs and ringed tail, and of course, the white marking on their head. The body size of red pandas is relatively modest with individuals reaching up to 64 cm in length from head-to-body, with an additional 49 cm tail. As they have an arboreal lifestyle they use their long and fluffy tails as a counterweight when climbing trees, but also to keep themselves warm, just like a scarf, from the cold weather of the mountains they live in🥶. Apart from using their tails as scarves to keep warm, their fur also allows them to withstand cold temperatures. They have a dense undercoat of fur and an upper coat of thick hair which provide a great insulation level❄️.
The diet of red pandas is also noticeable! 𝘈ilurus 𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘴 are vegetarian carnivorans🥗. This may sound a bit confusing if read too fast as it sounds that the red pandas are vegetarian and carnivores? How is this possible? Here, the term carnivorans do not refer to their diet but to their taxonomic position, as red pandas belong to a group of mammals known as the Carnivora. These species which all share a common ancestor also include hyaenas, foxes, walrus, bears, cats, dogs, mongooses and many others. As you can see the ecology of Carnivora is quite diverse and while the majority of them are carnivores (eating other animals), some, such as the red panda, have evolved towards a greener diet. This switch from a meat-based diet to a diet composed mainly of bamboo and a few insects occurred about two million years ago🐛.
While its name and diet suggest that the red panda is related to the giant panda, his closest relatives are in fact mustelids, or if you prefer weasels, badgers, otters, ferrets, and others, according to most recent studies using full genomes for these species to reconstruct their phylogenies🧬 (evolutionary relationships). The exact position of the red pandas has long been debated (and probably will still be) and for a time, it was thought to be related to raccoons, coatis and other mammals of a family called Procyonidae. And before that, it was thought to be related to the giant panda (Ursidae family = or bears if you prefer) as both species share similar diets and possess a bonus digit called a pseudo-thumb for climbing and gripping vegetation✋🏻, so five and a half fingers. This latter characteristic appears, however, the result of convergence in their evolution due to a similar diet rather than a trait shared with a common ancestor.
It is estimated that less than 10,000 wild red pandas remain in their natural environment, which is increasingly degraded and reduced by human activities, so to observe one in nature, you will have to be quite lucky and observant as they are good at hiding as well. Better to let them live in peace then and in the meantime if you wish to observe one in plain sight, come to the HKBM and have a closer look at our specimen. This could make for memorable pictures!
Text: Lydia Chang
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