RED PANDAS

Physical description: The red panda has reddish brown fur with distinct white marks on its   face and tail. It has a very long fluffy tail and small ears. Its whiskers are white and long.
Lifespan: 8 to 12 years is the average but can live to be 15 years old.
Communication: Squeaks, chattering noises, chipmunk like sounds.
Size: Weight is 8 to 12 pounds. Length is 20 to 24 inches.
Weight: 12 to 20 lbs (5.4 to 9 kg)
Social behavior: Solitary except during mating.
Conservation status: Endangered due to loss of habitat.
Population: Exact information difficult to obtain, estimated to be under 2400.
Predators: Snow leopards, martens.
Breeding frequency: 1 or 2 years.
Protection status: Endangered

DIET--
Bamboo is the main diet of the red panda and is abundant in its natural habitat. However it will also eat a variety of other foods such as fruits, nuts, eggs, flowers, and seeds.
Information from their droppings reveal additional diet facts, such as their taste for other prey such as rodents and small birds.
Red panda cubs eat bamboo until they are mature enough to expand their diet. Their bamboo ranges are endangered and threaten the life style of this unique species.

HABITAT--
The red panda lives, eats, and raises its babies in forest mountain terrains. Its habitat range includes central China, Nepal, Myanmar(Burma), and Bhutan. Precise information on their habitat distribution is not known since wild population facts are difficult to gather.

REPRODUCTION--
Breeding season is in the late fall through winter. The gestation period is about four months. Baby red pandas are born in an average litter size of one to four babies and are born in the late spring and summer.
They build a nest or use hollow tree trunks or small caves to give birth to their newborn. The mother red panda takes care of her cubs until they reach adulthood when the next mating season begins.
After birth adulthood is reached in 16 to 18 months. At 18 months both male and female are ready to mate and repeat the reproduction process.


The red panda is dwarfed by the black-and-white giant that shares its name. These pandas typically grow to the size of a house cat, though their big, bushy tails add an additional 18 inches (46 centimeters). The pandas use their ringed tails as wraparound blankets in the chilly mountain heights.
The red panda shares the giant panda's rainy, high-altitude forest habitat, but has a wider range. Red pandas live in the mountains of Nepal and northern Myanmar (Burma), as well as in central China.
These animals spend most of their lives in trees and even sleep aloft. When foraging, they are most active at night as well as in the gloaming hours of dusk and dawn.
Red pandas have a taste for bamboo but, unlike their larger relatives, they eat many other foods as well—fruit, acorns, roots, and eggs. Like giant pandas, they have an extended wrist bone that functions almost like a thumb and greatly aids their grip.
They are shy and solitary except when mating. Females give birth in the spring and summer, typically to one to four young. Young red pandas remain in their nests for about 90 days, during which time their mother cares for them. (Males take little or no interest in their offspring.)
The red panda has given scientists taxonomic fits. It has been classified as a relative of the giant panda, and also of the raccoon, with which it shares a ringed tail. Currently, red pandas are considered members of their own unique family—the Ailuridae.
Red pandas are endangered, victims of deforestation. Their natural space is shrinking as more and more forests are destroyed by logging and the spread of agriculture.