The Gorgeous Red Panda

Recent Work

• 

  Red Panda by Ben Luck

  Taken whilst visiting the Highland Wildlife Park in Scotland. There are Red Pandas at my local zoo, but I have never managed to get so close and see them so clearly. A real delight to see them up close.

• 

  looking at you by GiselaSchneider

  red panda at Zoo Montana, Billings, Montana, USA. canon DSLR, 70-300mm lens. F5.6@1/125,300mm,ISO100 FEATURED in: / 1. 100%! Group – 10/21/09 / 2. The World As We See It Group – 11/24/09

• 

  red panda by GiselaSchneider

  red panda photographed at Zoo Montana, Billings, Montana, USA. canon DSLR, 70-300mm lens. F5.6@1/125,300mm,ISO100 FEATURED in: / 1. The World As We See It Group – 11/21/09

• 

  Red Panda - like a stuffed toy by Mark Elshout

  The Red Panda is a shy creature. But with its round face and glistening eyes, it is hard to even think of it as a living creature! It looks just like something from a toy stores stuffed animal display. Featured in “Black and White Photographers United” AVAILABLE Now! 2010 Calendar – Totally Wild for Black and White /

• 

  Red Panda by Steve Bullock

  Enjoying some Bamboo at Taronga. Taken witha Canon 40D – 50-500mm lens at 400

• 
• 

  Red Panda by Steve Bullock

  These beautiful animals are incredibly rare, endagered, and in decline. Zoo’s are having good success but wild populations are continually under threat from poaching and habitat destruction..

• 

  Panda-ring around.. by Kristina K

  Camera.Sony A200 / lens 55-200 / Taken at Melbourne Zoo Victoria Australia 11.08.09 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. Info Taken from National Geographic website Photos by Kristina K / /

• 

  Red Pandas - Melbourne Zoo by Rosemaree

  This gorgeous little guy was so hard to find. He kept sneaking off behind branches. / olympus E520 / 70-300mm Zoom The Royal Melbourne Zoo is situated in Royal Park (Melbourne) and is easily accessed by train, car or bus. There is ample parking (metered), and all the amenities can be found inside the zoo, including: Toilets, cafe, zoo shop, playground, picnic shelters, and of course some of the worlds most spectacular exhibits showcasing many animals that are endangered. The Melbourne Zoo is about to welcome TWO new babies to their family when two of the Asian Elephants give birth early in 2009. There is a fantastic rain forest walk where one can encounter gorillas, tigers, elephants, oranutangs, and many other amazing animals. The zoo is a wonderful place for families and individuals to visit. check out more about the Royal Melbourne Zoo and its affilited cousins HERE / / / / /

• 

  Unique by BarbBarcikKeith

  10×14 watercolor enhanced colored pencil. The original is sold. The Red Panda, Ailurus fulgens (“shining cat”), is a mostly herbivorous mammal, specialized as a bamboo feeder. It is slightly larger than a domestic cat (40 – 60 cm long, 3 – 6 kg weight). The Red Panda is endemic to the Himalayas in Bhutan, southern China, India, Laos, Nepal, and Myanmar. Red Panda is the state animal in the Indian state of Sikkim. It is also the mascot of the Darjeeling international festivals. There is an estimated population of less than 2,500 mature individuals. Their population continues to decline due to habitat fragmentation . EtymologyAilurus fulgens means “shining cat,” from a Latinized form of the Greek αίλουρος (ailouros), “cat,” and the participial form of the Latin fulgere, “to shine” This name was given to it by Thomas Hardwicke, when he introduced it to Europeans in 1821. The word panda is derived from the Nepali word “ponya” which means bamboo and plant eating animals. The Chinese name of the Red Panda is (pinyin: xiǎo xióng māo), meaning ‘small panda’ or, more analytically, ‘small bear-cat’, in which ‘bear-cat’ is the Chinese name for the panda. The Chinese name of the Red Panda is based on that of the Giant Panda, unlike English where the Giant Panda has been named after the Red Panda. The Red Panda is also sometimes known as hǔo hú, which literally translates as “Firefox”, a name which can designate either the Red Fox or the Red Panda. The Red Panda is also sometimes known as the (pinyin: māo xióng), meaning ‘cat-bear’. The Red Panda is also known as the Wah (Ch) because of its distinctive cry. Other names include Bear Cat, Cloud Bear, Bright Panda, Common Panda, Fire Cat, Red Cat, Red Fox, Fox Bear, Himalayan Raccoon, Lesser Panda, Nigalya Ponya, Panda Chico (Sp), Panda Éclatant (Fr), Panda Rojo (Sp), Petit Panda (Fr), Crimson Ngo, Sankam, Thokya, Wokdonka, Vetri, and Ye. It is called a Bear Cat because it was thought to be related to a small bear and washes itself like a cat by licking its entire body. PhylogeneticsMain article: Ailuridae / The most recent molecular-systematic DNA research places the Red Panda into its own independent family Ailuridae. Ailuridae are part of a trichotomy within the broad superfamily Musteloidea (Flynn et al., 2001) that includes the Mephitidae (skunks), Procyonidae (raccoons), and Mustelidae (weasel, mink, wolverine, badger); but it is not a bear (Ursidae) as is the Giant Panda. There are two extant subspecies of Red Panda: the Western Red Panda (Ailurus fulgens fulgens) that lives in the western part of its range, and the somewhat larger Styans Red Panda (Ailurus fulgens styani) that lives in the east-northeastern part of its range. The Western Red Panda has lighter pelage, especially in the face, while the Styans Red Panda has more dramatic facial markings. The effective population size in the Sichuan population is larger and more stable than that in the Yunnan population, implying a southward expansion from Sichuan to Yunnan. The taxonomic classification of both the Red Panda and Giant Panda has been under debate for many decades, as both species share characteristics of both bears and raccoons. However, they are only very distantly related by remote common ancestry from the Early Tertiary Period. Its common ancestor can be traced back to tens of millions of years ago with a wide distribution across Eurasia. Fossils of the Red Panda have been unearthed from China in the east to Britain in the west (Hu, 1990), and most recently a handful of fossils (Pristinailurus bristoli, Miocene, considered to be a new genus and species of the Red Panda) have also been discovered in North America. (information from Wikipedia) Complete 2007

• 

  Mr. Red Panda by stephanie allison

  Acrylic on 8×10 Canvas Board Red Panda’s are seriously one of the cutest animals I have ever seen! Here is a real picture of one to show that they are really real creatures, and just how adorable they are

• 

  Precious by Sean Jansen

  Captured at the Calgary Zoo, The Red Panda is considered rare among animals on the endangered species list. Estimates say less than 2500. They can be found generally in high altitudes such as Nepal and China. These cute little animals spend most of their lives living in trees, and live off of bambo. Curently habitat infringement and destuction are its number one threat of extinction. /