A Cute Family

What is a red panda? Is it a panda? A raccoon? Maybe a weasel? The red panda is actually not part of any of those families. This mammal is so unique that it gets a family of its own: Ailuridae. Today, we dive into what makes these adorable creatures so peculiar.

Red pandas are known for being cute and cuddly, just like giant pandas from the bear family. Despite the shared name, red pandas and giant pandas are not closely related. However, they do share “panda thumbs.” Those special wristbones act as opposable thumbs so that the pandas can grip bamboo stalks while they eat. Like all bamboo eaters, red pandas sleep often so that they can digest the bamboo that they consume. Bamboo contains cyanide, which is toxic to most animals, but the tough stomachs of bamboo eaters can handle the poisoning.

Fun Fact: Bamboo is actually a grass—a really tall grass!

Red pandas have fiery-colored fur, just like foxes from the dog family. They even have dog-like facial features, but they are not closely related to foxes. Red pandas have the build and the nimbleness of a weasel like a pine marten, but they are not part of that family either. Scientists used to classify red pandas in the same family as raccoons: the Procyonidae family. Now, they’re distinctive enough to have their own family.

Let’s take a sidetrack and discuss taxonomy for a moment. Taxonomy is how scientists classify living things. There are different levels of categorization: domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species. Some categories have intermediate ranks, too. The scientific name of an animal is composed of the genus and the species name. In this article, the word “family” refers to the rank family, which is the category right above the genus rank.

As all mammals are, the red panda lies in the Eukaryota domain, the Animalia kingdom, the Chordata phylum, and the Mammalia class. Although their staple is bamboo, particularly the tender, young stalks, they also eat insects, grubs, and even birds and small animals at times; that’s why their order is Carnivora, which all mammal carnivores fall under. A carnivore is an animal that eats other animals, as opposed to a herbivore that eats plants. Here’s where it gets special: the red panda is the only species in the Ailuridae family, with a genus of Ailurus and a species of fulgens (the more common species).

Red pandas are playful animals—they love to wrestle each other and race around in the trees when they aren’t napping. At 20 to 25 inches long (not including the tail) and weighing from 6 to 10 pounds, their agile bodies are just the right size for scurrying about in the trees. These nimble climbers use their bushy tail, which can range from 11 to 19 inches, for balance and their sharp claws to grip the trees of the temperate forests of the mountain areas in China, Nepal, India, Bhutan, and Burma.

Fun Fact: Red pandas can climb down trees head first!

There are a lot of cute and cuddly animals out there, and the red panda is one of the cutest. Here’s a video of some adorable red panda moments!

Credit to AnimalTV

I hope you learned something new today! Keep a lookout for the next post!