RED PANDA

RED PANDA

 Classification:-

Kingdom:            Animalia
Phylum:              Chordata
Class:                 Mammalia
Order:                Carnivora
Suborder:          Caniformia
Infraorder:        Arctoidea
Superfamily:      Mustelidea
Family:              Ailuridae
Genus:               Allurus 
The red panda (Ailurus fulgens, or shining-cat), is a small arboreal mammal native to the eastern Himalayas and southwestern Chian. It is the only species of the genus Ailurus. Slightly larger than a domestic cat, it has reddish-brown fur, a long, shaggy tail, and a waddling gait due to its shorter front legs. It feeds mainly on bamboo, but is omnivorous  and may also eat eggs, birds, insects, and small mammals. It is a solitary animal, mainly active from dusk to dawn, and is largely sedentary  during the day.

The red panda has been classified as Vulnerable by IUCN  because its population is estimated at fewer than 10,000 mature individuals. Although red pandas are protected by national laws in their range countries, their numbers in the wild continue to decline mainly due to habitat loss and fragmentation, poaching, and inbreeding depression.



The red panda has been previously classified in the families Procyonidae (raccoons) and Ursidae  (bears), but recent research has placed it in its own family Ailuridae, in superfamily Musteloidea along with Mustelidae  and Procyonidae. Two subspecies are recognized.
 

Physical characteristics

Head and body of red pandas are 56 to 63 cm (22 to 25 in) long, and their tail about 37 to 47 cm (15 to 19 in). Males weigh 3.7 to 6.2 kg (8.2 to 14 lb) and females 4.2 to 6.0 kg (9.3 to 13 lb). They have long, soft reddish-brown fur on the upper parts, blackish fur on the lower parts, and a light face with tear markings and robust cranial-dental  features. The light face has white badges similar to those of a raccoon,  but each individual can have distinctive markings. Their roundish head has medium-sized upright ears, a black nose, and very dark eyes: almost pitch black. Their long bushy tail with six alternating yellowish red transverse ochre  rings provides balance and excellent camouflage  against its habitat of moss- and lichen-covered trees. The legs are black and short with thick fur on the soles of the paws. This fur serves as thermal insulation on snow-covered or ice surfaces and conceals scent glands which are also present on the anus.

The red panda is specialized  as a bamboo feeder with strong, curved and sharp semi-retractile claws  standing inward for grasping of narrow tree branches, leaves and fruit. Like the giant panda,  it has a “false thumb” that is an extension of the wrist bone. When descending a tree headfirst, the red panda rotates its ankle to control its descent, one of the few climbing species to do so.

Distribution and habitat 

The red panda is endemic to the temperate forests of the Himalayas, and ranges from the foothills of western Nepeal to China in the east. Its easternmost limit is the Qinling Mountains  of the Shaanxi province in China. It is found in southern Tibet, Sikkim, Assam and Bhutan in the northern mountains of Myanmar, and in southwestern China in the Hengduan Mountains  of Sichuan  and Gongshan Mountains in Yannan. It may also live in southwest Tibet and northern Arunachal Pradesh, but this has not been documented. Locations with the highest density of red pandas include an area in the Himalayas that has been proposed as having been a refuge for a variety of endemic species in the Pleistocene. The distribution range of the red panda should be considered disjunct, rather than continuous.

A disjunct population inhabits the Meghalaya Plateau of northeastern India.
During a survey in the 1970s, signs of red pandas were found in Nepal's  Dhoratan Hunting Reserve. Their presence was confirmed in spring 2007 when four red pandas were sighted at elevations ranging from 3,220 to 3,610 m (10,560 to 11,840 ft). The species' westernmost limit is in Rara National Park located farther west of the Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve. Their presence was confirmed in 2008. 
  
The red panda lives between 2,200 and 4,800 meters (7,200 and 15,700 ft) altitude, inhabiting areas of moderate temperature between 10 and 25 °C / 50 and 77 °F with little annual change. It prefers mountainous mixed deciduous and conifer forests, especially with old trees and dense understories of bamboo.

The effective population size of the Sichuan population is larger and more stable than that of the Yunnan population, implying a southward expansion from Sichuan to Yunnan.   

In August 2010, archaeologists uncovered red panda fossil remains in Washington county in the US state of Tennessee. Although none are known to exist in the wild in North America today, it is believed the red panda thrived in the mountains of eastern Tennessee approximately 4.5 million years ago.
The red panda has become exitrpated  from the Chinese provinces of Guizhou, Gansu, Shaanxi and Qinghai.