Red Panda Facts
Here are some interesting red panda facts for you.- The red panda hails from the Himalayas, ranging from Nepal to China, Northern India, Myanmar, and Bhutan.
- The red panda is a wild animal with a small built and is the only species of the animal taxonomic group; called Ailurus.
- Bestowed with a petite body structure, the red panda has fur with hues of red and brown, a fluffy tail, and a tottering pace. This unsteady gait is due to its front legs being short and pudgy.
- The red panda is 20 to 25 inches in length; that is, their length excluding their tail. Their tail is 15 to 20 inches long. Their upper body is covered with reddish-brown fur, and the lower parts of the body are adorned with fur, shaded black.
- The male and female red pandas weight range, is 3.5 to 6.5 kg, and 4 to 6 kg, respectively.
- They sport a visage with soft features. Nevertheless, the shape of the head appears solid and its alveolar makeup is strong.
- Its round head has appropriately sized, upright ears and deep dark eyes. Its tail is bushy and fluffy. It has a combination of yellow and red rings on the tail that serve to be a camouflage against the habitat.
- The red panda habitat is a forest covered with dense trees of moss and lichen.
- The sole of their paws have a thick layer of fur. This thickness of fur is to aid the red panda sustain the chills of the snow; thereby, providing thermal insulation to the feet.
- A plain routine of red pandas, just after they have woken up, is to dust their fur clean. An anecdotal view captures a red panda fraying his back and sides with vigor. They do allow branches or barks of trees to serve them as 'friction providers', by wriggling their bodies and going through the motions!
- They scuttle around for food and usually prey on food items; for instance, puny birds, eggs, berries, and prefer to chew on maple bark and leaves. An intriguing fact - It is their front paws that feed them; the food finds its way into the mouth, when they grab a paw-ful of their gatherings. They swipe their paws into a water body and slurp it through.
- It will be interesting for you to know that having your red panda as pet, would mean having an arboreal animal with strong, sharp, and subtly curved claws that aid him to grasp and devour tree branches, fruits, and foliage.
- Another very enticing physical feature, worth the mention: the false thumb of the panda. The giant panda bears have their wrist bone jutting out, which appears like the thumb. Hence, the term "false thumb".
- A red panda pet is a nocturnal and crepuscular animal. By these terms, I mean, the red panda is most active at night, and at the onset of twilight. Its sleeping abode is on tree branches. It becomes alert and active during the late afternoon and continues to waddle around briskly until twilight hours.
- Bear in mind, that the red panda cannot tolerate extreme heat conditions. Temperatures over 25 degree C, is a big no-no for the red panda survival.
- The red pandas can live up to 9 to 10 years on an average, some extending up to 15 years of age.
- The numbers of the red panda are now dwindling with an estimate of 11,000 to 20,000 worldwide.
- Poaching, fragmentation, and loss of habitat are some of the main reasons for the decline in the red panda population.
These were some essential facts about red pandas. We now move on to the question of adopting red pandas. Well, a red panda cannot be kept as pet, even though they are cute and adorable. It is, indeed, an ideal choice to have a red panda as pet; however, on the other hand, they have never been adopted as pet animals.
Thus, having a red panda pet does not serve to be a good idea. The red pandas, also called the Firefox or the Lesser Pandas, are an endangered species and a wild arboreal animal, and this is reason enough not to adopt them as pets. So rule out this idea for yourself ... for good ... !
By Azmin Taraporewala
