Red Panda
By Garima Anand
Food Chain, and Habitat
-Their habitat are temperate forests, like the foothills of the Himalayas. (PANDA)
-These animals are found the countries Nepal, northeastern India (west Bengal, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh), Bhutan, and part of China. (PUEBLO)
-Predators are Snow leopard, martens, and sadly us humans. (ANIMALS)
-The life span of Red Panda is 8 years,in the wild, but in the preserves it is 18 to 20 years. (PANDA)
-It is generally cool with some temperate variations. Not too hot, not too cold. (PANDA)
-They usually breed between the months January and March. After a gestation period, the female gives birth to 1 to 5 cubs who are blind and deaf. (ANIMALS)
Description
-They resemble raccoons, having their red color, and they have a dense fur cover to go through the winter. (RED)
-Communications of these animals are a series of short whistles and also body language like head bobbing and tail arching. (ARKIVE)
-Some intersting facts are that the Red Panda has an artificial enlarged wrist bone known as "the pseudo thumbs" that helps them grasp food and find them more efficiently. (ANIMALS)
Adaptation
-To help them survive in the wild, they have sharp claws to climb trees and growls loudly to make his predator intimidated. But they are usually quiet, curious and peaceful animals. (PANDA)
-It has sharp claws to defend itself and to climb trees. (PANDA)
-When a predator is close by, red pandas hide into the trees. (PANDA)
-They get their food by using their noses to smell the food and find it. Also it stays in the trees to get food from there too. (PROTECT)
Reasons for endangerment
-They start to get mature sexually at 18 months but not fully hit maturity until they are about 1 to 2 years old and that can make a huge difference. (ATLANTA)
-Red Pandas are getting hunted too much by their natural predators or people. (ATLANTA)
-The temperature changes might reduce the body temperature and they might die from that as well. (SAVE)
-Poaching is going on everywhere they live, which is illegal hunting, for their fur for chinese wedding hats. (SAVE)
Critical Information
-Spreading the news of protecting the Red Pandas. Now it is illegal to make wedding hats in China from their fur. (ABOUT)
-The Red Panda Network is trying to protect the forests and the bamboo forests the pandas live in. (PANDA)
-Now the worldwide population is 2,500 red pandas. (ARKIVE)