Eastern Red Panda

The red panda is a small mammal of the eastern Himalaya and south-west China, with dense reddish-brown fur, a black belly and legs, white-lined ears, a mostly white muzzle and a ringed tail. It climbs well, thanks to flexible joints and curved, semi-retractile claws. Head and body length is 51–63.5 cm with a 28–48.5 cm tail, and weight is 3.2–15 kg. The two recognised subspecies, the Himalayan and the Chinese, diverged about 250,000 years ago, and the Wikipedia account treats them as one species (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is solitary and largely arboreal, living in coniferous, temperate broadleaf and mixed forest and favouring steep slopes with dense bamboo cover close to water. It feeds mainly on bamboo shoots and leaves, but also eats fruit and blossoms. Red pandas mate in early spring and give birth to litters of up to four cubs in summer. Community-based conservation programmes have been started in Nepal, Bhutan and north-eastern India (Wikipedia, general species account).