Red Panda ( Ailurus fulgens)

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The Red Panda which is known as the Lesser Panda or the Firefox mainly resides in the countries of Bhutan, Nepal, India, Myanmar, and in southern China. There is not much known about the range of Ailurus fulgens in the wild, but it is known that the Red panda’s eastern most habitat is in the Qing Ling mountain chain in Shaanxi Province in China, and the range of the Red Panda in the west goes as far as the Annapurana Range, which is in Nepal. The population in the wild is estimated at 10,000 individuals, making its conservation status on the ICUN Red List, vulnerable, which means that it has a high risk of endangerment in the wild.
The Red Panda’s habitat is mainly in temperate forests enjoying temperatures ranging between 10 and 25°C which is around 50-70°F. They live in mountainous forests with conifers and deciduous trees in the dense undergrowth of bamboo, fallen logs and tree stumps.
The Red Panda lives mostly in solitude and is territorial. They are usually quiet, but sometimes they may make tweeting and twittering noises. Some Red Pandas are nocturnal, but they are mainly active during the early evening hours and also at dusk. The Red Panda cannot stand temperatures above 25°C (77°F).
The two primary predators for the red Panda are Snow Leopards and Humans. They clean themselves like cats, licking their paws and rubbing their backs with them. They may also rub their backs on rocks and trees, and they are known to be able to stand on their back paws for short periods of time. The Red Panda marks its territory with its urine or a weak musky smelling anal secretion. Red Pandas have the ability to procreate when they reach 18 months of age, and become fully mature at around 3 years. Both male and female Red Pandas may mat...

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... is generally considered as the geologic division between the two subspecies.

As you can see in the phylogenetic tree above, it shows that the Raccoon (Procyon lotor) is the closest species to Ailurus fulgens, diverging at around 32 MYA. There are other species that are similar to Ailurus fulgans which are all of the species in the superfamily Musteloidea. Some of these include Weasels, Otters, Badgers and Ring-tailed cats (which are not cats at all).

Works Cited

https://redpandanetwork.org/red_panda/about-the-red-panda/ 5/5/2014 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_panda#Phylogenetics 5/5/2014 http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/714/0 5/5/2014 http://library.sandiegozoo.org/factsheets/red_panda/red_panda.htm 5/5/2014 http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/red-panda/ 5/5/2014 http://www.gbwf.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5164&highlight=pheasant 5/5/2014

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