Lil' Red Pandas

Red pandas are endangered; Pemba is the 44th born at the Taronga Zoo since it began a breeding program for the species, a relative of both the giant panda and the raccoon.

"Pemba's favorite food is grapes, which he sometimes takes right from our fingertips, a testament to the level of trust and the strong bond we have developed with him and his protective mother," zookeeper Megan Lewis said of the baby, who's considered especially large for his age. (During his mother Wanmei's pregnancy, keepers thought she was carrying two cubs.) As an adult, he'll likely weigh about 12 to 20 pounds.

Red pandas are native to Nepal ("Pemba" means "Saturday" in Nepalese), Myanmar and China, where their habitat is shrinking as a result of deforestation.

Article from LA Times Blog
Photo from Mark Baker/Associated Press

IT'S a dog's life for these two super cute panda pups - after they were adopted by a POOCH.

The rare red pandas were abandoned by their mum at birth at a zoo in northern China. But thanks to the milk and loving care they've had from a local farm dog they're now thriving.

The cubs were born on June 25 and immediately left on their own after their mum gave birth in front of a crowd of visitors. Zoo employee Ha Guojiang said: "No one knew she was pregnant. "Her plump body and bushy hair disguised her protruding belly until the babies were born. We hurriedly went about to find a wet nurse for them."

The new mummy mutt, belonging to a farmer from a nearby suburb, is raising the two panda cubs as its own, sometimes even refusing to feed its little pup, said Mr Guojiang. At three-weeks-old, the baby cubs have yet to open their eyes and have doubled in length to eight inches.

Unlike the more well-known, bear-like giant pandas, red pandas resemble raccoons with long bushy tails. There are believed to be fewer than 2,500 adult red pandas in the world.

Reported in The Sun-UK

Because of the size of the red panda, even the adults are cute. Let's take a deeper look into the adult years of the red panda and there is no one better to help you with learning about things like this than the National Geographic. You also can't find much better pictures than you can find on their site. The photo here is by Mark W. Moffett

Here is what they tell us about the Red Panda:

## The red panda is dwarfed by the black-and-white giant that shares its name. These pandas typically grow to the size of a house cat, though their big, bushy tails add an additional 18 inches (46 centimeters). The pandas use their ringed tails as wraparound blankets in the chilly mountain heights.

## The red panda shares the giant panda's rainy, high-altitude forest habitat, but has a wider range. Red pandas live in the mountains of Nepal and northern Myanmar (Burma), as well as in central China.

## These animals spend most of their lives in trees and even sleep aloft. When foraging, they are most active at night as well as in the gloaming hours of dusk and dawn.

## Red pandas have a taste for bamboo but, unlike their larger relatives, they eat many other foods as well-fruit, acorns, roots, and eggs. Like giant pandas, they have an extended wrist bone that functions almost like a thumb and greatly aids their grip.

##They are shy and solitary except when mating. Females give birth in the spring and summer, typically to one to four young. Young red pandas remain in their nests for about 90 days, during which time their mother cares for them. (Males take little or no interest in their offspring.)

## The red panda has given scientists taxonomic fits. It has been classified as a relative of the giant panda, and also of the raccoon, with which it shares a ringed tail. Currently, red pandas are considered members of their own unique family-the Ailuridae.

## Red pandas are endangered, victims of deforestation. Their natural space is shrinking as more and more forests are destroyed by logging and the spread of agriculture.

Mission:

The Red Panda Network is committed to the conservation of wild red pandas and their habitat through the education and empowerment of local communities.

Vision:

To be a world leader in community-based conservation.

The Need:

The red panda and its habitat are endangered due to conversion of forest to farms and pastures through overgrazing. The Red Panda Project creates innovative alternatives that increase the probability of survival of the red panda.