Red Panda
Ailurus Fulgens
45.3987, -72.7221
Field Notes
Description:
The red panda (Ailurus fulgens, or shining cat), is a small arboreal mammal native to the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China.[2] It is the only species of the genus Ailurus. Slightly larger than a domestic cat, it has reddish-brown fur, a long, shaggy tail, and a waddling gait due to its shorter front legs. It feeds mainly on bamboo, but is omnivorous and may also eat eggs, birds, insects, and small mammals. It is a solitary animal, mainly active from dusk to dawn, and is largely sedentary during the day. It is only distantly related to the giant panda.
The red panda has been classified as Vulnerable by IUCN because its population is estimated at fewer than 10,000 mature individuals. Although red pandas are protected by national laws in their range countries, their numbers in the wild continue to decline mainly due to habitat loss and fragmentation, poaching, and inbreeding depression.[2]
It has been previously classified in the families Procyonidae (raccoons) and Ursidae (bears), but recent research has placed it in its own family Ailuridae, in superfamily Musteloidea along with Mustelidae, Procyonidae, and Mephitidae.[4] Two subspecies are recognized.
Habitat:
The red panda is endemic to the temperate forests of the Himalayas, and ranges from the foothills of western Nepal to China in the east.[8] Its easternmost limit is the Qinling Mountains of the Shaanxi Province in China. It is found in southern Tibet, Sikkim, Assam and Bhutan, in the northern mountains of Myanmar, and in southwestern China in the Hengduan Mountains of Sichuan and Gongshan Mountains in Yunnan. It may also live in southwest Tibet and northern Arunachal Pradesh, but this has not been documented. Locations with the highest density of red pandas include an area in the Himalayas that has been proposed as having been a refuge for a variety of endemic species in the Pleistocene. The distribution range of the red panda should be considered disjunct, rather than continuous.[5] A disjunct population inhabits the Meghalaya Plateau of northeastern India.[9]
Notes:
This picture was taken at the Granby Zoo in Quebec. I caught him right when he was yawning, although one would assume that he looks rather angry.
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