Red Pandas

Red pandas are small, furry animals with rusty red fur, a striped tail, and a cute face. Despite their name, they are not closely related to giant pandas. Red pandas live in the mountain forests of Nepal, India, and China. They are about the size of a large house cat.

Tree Dwellers

Red pandas spend most of their time in trees. They are excellent climbers and use their long, bushy tails for balance. Like giant pandas, red pandas eat mostly bamboo. They also eat berries, flowers, and bird eggs. Red pandas are most active at dawn and dusk.

Staying Warm

Red pandas wrap their fluffy tails around themselves like a blanket to stay warm in the cold mountains. They have fur on the bottoms of their feet to keep them from slipping on wet branches and to keep their feet warm. Red pandas are solitary and shy animals.

Fun Facts

• Red pandas were discovered 48 years before giant pandas.
• They have a fake thumb, similar to giant pandas.
• Firefox, the web browser, was originally named after the red panda.

Did You Know?

The word for red panda in Nepali is 'nigalya ponya,' which means 'bamboo eater.' The Mozilla Firefox web browser's logo was inspired by the red panda!