Lifespan12 to 14 years
Quick facts
DietBamboo, fruit, acorns, roots, insects and eggs
HabitatTemperate forests with bamboo understories
RangeEastern Himalayas in places like China, Nepal and Bhutan
The Red Pandas
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The panda connection
Like the giant panda, the red panda has an extra digit on each paw that works as a ‘thumb’ to help grasp bamboo. This ‘thumb’ is actually a modified wrist bone covered by a fleshy pad.
Red pandas are solitary, just like giant pandas. Similarly, females are only fertile for a couple of days a year and males seek them out only around this time. Despite the difference in size in the adults, newborn red pandas weigh 100g, as heavy as panda cubs at birth.
The raccoon connection
Despite similarities with the giant pandas, the red panda is more closely related to the raccoons. Like members of the raccoon family, the red panda scent-marks its territory with urine and anal gland secretions. It even has scent glands between its footpads, which exude a colourless liquid. The red panda has a unique cone-like structure at the bottom of its tongue. This is used to bring liquids found on scent trails to a gland inside its mouth to ‘test’ them.
Red Pandas Thriving Amid Conservation and Challenges
Where they overlap in range with the high-profile giant pandas, the red pandas are benefitting from conservation efforts like panda reserves and green corridors. Poaching, logging and other human activities are also regulated. However, populations in locations outside of China are experiencing increased hunting pressure due to high demand for their skins and meat in China. Live animals are also being smuggled due to the red panda’s rising popularity as an exotic pet.
Meet Our Red Pandas
Karma
Born in December 2013, Karma is a Himalayan red panda. A careful observer of his surroundings, you can often find him perched high in the trees, taking his time before approaching our staff for feeding or health checks.
Besides regularly scent marking around his habitat, Karma is also part of a global exchange programme supporting healthy, genetically diverse red panda populations under human care.
Yaffa
Born in 2015, Yaffa joined us from Taipei Zoo. He's slightly larger and darker than Karma, he enjoys daytime walks, scent-marking favourite rocks, and food-based enrichment (especially apples and carrots).
Afternoons are often for resting, preferably somewhere quiet. Regular health and mobility monitoring forms part of his care programme to support his wellbeing and comfort.
