The Red Panda Needs Your Help
Red pandas are a rare species, and becoming rarer still. They are vulnerable to extinction with fewer than 10,000 individuals left in the wild. Read on to learn more about these animals and to find out how to help.
The Red Panda is only slightly larger than a domestic cat with a bear-like body and thick reddish brown fur. It's belly and limbs are a dark black and it has white highlights on the sides of it's head and above it's eyes. Red Pandas mainly live in trees and are very acrobatic allowing them to travel through the canopy with ease. Almost 50% of the Red Panda's habitat is in the Eastern Himalayas. They use their long bushy tails like a blanket in winter and for balance in the trees. The Red Panda is omnivorous and primarily eat bamboo.
Red Pandas suffer from habitat loss, habitat fragmentation and further fragmentation of the fragments. Disturbance and attacks by dogs which move with herders and their livestock into red panda habitat, and to a lesser extent poaching. One rather worrying recent development is the apparent appearance of red pandas (on the menu) in some restaurants in China. I suspect the arrival of domestic dogs in red panda habitat brings with it the very real threat of canine distemper to which red pandas are very susceptible. ~ Dr Angela Glatston of the Rotterdam Zoo
These are not our own pictures. The credit should go to the original photographers.