Red Panda Research Paper

Despite sharing the name and a modified wrist bone to firmly grasp bamboo of a widely loved animal, the red panda is nothing like the giant panda. Red pandas are long-haired mammals that are twenty-two to twenty-five inches long with rust-colored with black coats and alternating rusty/white striped tails for balance. The unique design of their fur gives them the adaptation to be camouflage in fir trees that are covered in clumps of reddish-brown moss and white lichens. They have five, widely-spread toes with semi-retractable claws and scent marking glands on bottom pads of feet that exude a colorless liquid to mark their territory. The species of the red panda is a very solitary. The only communication they ever make is within the first year
They like to live in temperate, cool areas with little annual variation because of the how the bamboo is grown in these areas within their range. According to the Red Panda Network, “The southern slopes of the mountains trap the water from seasonal monsoons, supporting forests of firs, deciduous hardwoods, and rhododendrons. A bamboo understory grows in these forests and provides the bulk of the red panda’s diet,” ("About the Red Panda"). Red pandas also use trees to escape predators and sunbathe in the
They also happen to be more active in cooler temperatures, but ,”…in significantly cold temperatures red pandas can become dormant, lowering their metabolic rate and raising it every few hours to wake up and look for food. This adaptation has allowed them to spend almost as little energy as a sloth, which is exceptionally beneficial considering the low nutrition content of their diet,” ("Red Panda"). Red pandas also have many other temperate adaptations which include curling into a ball to conserve body heat in the cold and stretching out and panting to lower body heat when it is too