Red panda bear: behavior and habitat
Characteristics of the red panda bear
The red panda bear lives in the mountains of Nepal, Myanmar and Central China. Currently, it is one of the species, next to the panda, more threatened on the planet. Despite its name and appearance, which could remind us of a mapache, the red panda bear is a single species – independent of the previous two – belonging to the genus Ailurus and the Ailuridae family.
The red panda bear is approximately the size of a cat, not counting on the fact that its tail can add 46 centimeters to the total length of its body. Its weight is between three and six kilograms. It is reddish brown, except in its legs and belly, which are black. Its tail is ringed with white and red bands, while the edge of the ears, cheeks, snout and the spots on their eyes are usually white, which adds that appearance of Mapache.
This mammal has a life expectancy of up to 14 years in captivity, and is currently in conservation programs in many zoos around the world. The main problem is the destruction of its habitat, one of the reasons along with the poaching by which the species is in danger of extinction.
Where does he live and what he feeds on?
In its natural state it is located in the Himalayas bamboo forest, between 1500 and 4800 meters of altitude. Its habitat is being reduced due to the felling of trees and agriculture and livestock, which sweeps the forests where it lives. These are other factors that affect your homonym, the panda bear.
The red panda bear loves bamboo;It is a very important part of your diet. Although it belongs to the order of carnivores, it is preferably vegetarian, since it eats above all fruit, roots, shoots, lichens and bamboo leaves, although it is also able to capture insects, worms and even small vertebrates.
As a curiosity, this species has developed a taste for sweet taste, as corroborated by Monell Chemical Sensa Center in its study on sweet receptor genes in several mammal species. The red panda bear shows preference for the taste of the sweetening, neotamo and aspartamo sweetening molecules.
Red panda behavior
It is an arborícola species: it has the bone of the wrist so developed that it even looks like a thumb. This allows you to grab the trees with ease, and it is very agile passing from one tree to another. Use sleeping trees, build your nest and flee from predators. E The Nieves Panther is one of its main threats.
They are shy animals, of nocturnal and lonely habits, except at the time of mating, in which males can be observed to make short vocalizations of a single syllable: ‘Wha’. The red panda bear delimits its territory marking the perimeter with its secretions, which contain a strong smell of musk to inform other individuals of their presence. The gestation period of the females is about 115 days, and they usually have between one and four young – which are born covered with hair and blind – per litter, although there are generally two. They build their nest in trees, refugees from possible predators. It is the mother who deals completely on the care and food of the young, which remain about 90 days inside the burrow. Males are barely interested in their offspring.
Another curious fact is that the word in English Fire Fox is one of the names that this species receives, and the browser logo has been confused. Also in Chinese the same word is used to name both the red fox and the red panda bear. However, the Firefox logo is based on the red fox and not on our panda.
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