Red panda is the real firefox

Red panda also known as firefox is a raccoon-like animal a little bit larger than domestic cat. Red pandas are considered endangered. Only 2500 adult species could be found in the woods of the Southern China, Burma, Nepal and Bhutan.

Even if you will be lucky enough to find a red panda in its natural habitat, it’s still will be hard to take a good pictures of this awesome animal. Red pandas spend their days napping in the hollows of the trees. Only when the sun is setting down, they came out of their shelters to eat some bamboo leaves and shoots.

10 facts about red panda

1. The Latin name of the specie—Ailurus fulgens—translated as shining cat. However, red pandas have nothing to do with the cats.

2. Despite the common name (and the less known alias—lesser panda) red pandas have nothing to do with great pandas as well.

3. Modern science put red pandas into Ailuridae family, all other members of which is now extinct. But when this specie was described for the first time in 1825 it have been put into raccoon family because of exterior similarity. And after that it have been transferred into bear family.

4. Red pandas are omnivorous. They do like bamboo leaves and shoots but also eating eggs, birds, insects and small mammals.

5. Red pandas are bad hunters—they are way too clumsy on the ground, but everything changes when they are climbing back on the branches.

6. Red pandas are very good-natured animal and would make great pets if not being endangered.

7. Red pandas spend 13 hours a day eating.

8. When red pandas are sleeping they are usually wrapping their tail around their head.

9. Their bright red color in fact helps them blend into the tree trunks and branches overgrown with the red moss.

10. Red panda’s fur covers entire body, including the soles of its feet.

Red panda is the real firefox was posted by Vitali K. on 6th March 2011 as part of the Environment section. Check the front page for the latest posts and follow me on Twitter.