Rachel Smith - Red Pandas For Kids

Amazing Animal Books
For Young Readers

By

Rachel Smith

Mendon Cottage Books

JD-Biz Corp Publishing

All Rights Reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproducedin any form or by any means, including scanning, photocopying, orotherwise without prior written permission from JD-Biz Corp

Copyright 2015. All Images Licensed byFotolia and 123RF.

Read More Amazing AnimalBooks

The red panda is probably one of the cutestcreatures around, easily tying with the giant panda. But why arethey both called pandas if they look so incredibly different? Andwhat makes the red panda different from, say, a raccoon?

Red pandas are unique animals all their own.They live in Asia, towards the East, and they have been a morerecent favorite animal of many children and adults. Unlike itsname-sibling the giant panda, the red panda receives less attentionthan many endangered animals. However, it is also one of the morecommon zoo animals, since red pandas do so well in zoos.

What makes the red panda an animal worthknowing? There are a lot of answers to that question, and we willcover them in this book.

A red panda is a unique animal. It's alsoknown as the lesser panda, the red bear cat and the red cat bear.As you can see, just from the names, there has been a lot ofconfusion as to what exactly the red panda is.

A red panda relaxing on a tree branch.

To start off, the red panda is a mammal. Amammal is an animal that is warm-blooded and nurses its young; manymammals also have fur or hair, though this is not always true, asthe blue whale is a mammal too. However, the blue whale iscertainly not hairy or furry.

Beyond that, a red panda is called AilurusFulgens. That is its scientific name, a name that scientists use torefer to it, usually based in dead languages such as Latin orAncient Greek. Now, it may seem silly to use languages like that toname every animal, but it's actually a pretty cool way to do it. Itmeans that it's the same for every scientist, no matter whatlanguage they speak. This works whether it's Japanese, English, orKhalkha Mongolian.

Ailurus Fulgens is the only animal in itsgenus, or even in its family. The red panda is truly unique, notclosely related to seemingly any other animal.

Another thing about the red panda is that itis not a carnivore. It is an omnivore, meaning that it eats avariety of things. One of these things, the main thing, is bamboo.Other things are a large group.

The red panda is not a large animal. It's abit larger than a domestic cat, or a house cat. If you've seen acat, then just imagine this animal being a little bigger.

One very recognizable thing about the redpanda is its coloring. Its ringed tail definitely catches yourattention, and its face is marked red on white in many cases. Infact, in some areas, it is called the fire fox for its brilliantlyred coloring.

Its ears are upright and kind of large; itseyes are very darkly colored. The red panda has sharp claws thatare semi-retractable, meaning they can kind of pull them in a bit.They are very strong claws meant for climbing.

A red panda can also rotate its ankle. Thisis something few animals can do, and it helps them climb trees.You'll very often find red pandas in trees, and unlike domesticcats, they can climb down them face-forward. This is a reason catsoften get stuck in trees: they can climb up, but their claws facethe wrong way to climb down, and they haven't master climbing downbackwards. The red panda simply rotates its ankle to climbdown.

One thing that the giant panda and the redpanda have in common is a false thumb. The false thumb comes fromits wrist, instead of part of its hand like in a human. That's whyit's called a false thumb.

The white area and the ringed tail of the redpanda have long made people assume it's related to the raccoon.Other things, such as bamboo-eating and the false thumb, have madepeople think it's related to the giant panda.

Neither is really an accurate assessment.

Red pandas are solitary creatures. This meansthey don't really live in groups, and like to have their space.They are territorial, meaning that they have an area they defendand keep for themselves.

A red panda.

Red pandas don't make very many sounds.Twittering, whistling sounds tend to be it, and even those aren'tmade very often. This is because they're not often in contact witheach other, so there's little reason to try to communicate. It is avery quiet species, which is probably why the red panda is notincluded in books about animal sounds.

They like to sleep in trees, because they arecreatures that are very good at climbing and they feel safe there.It sleeps one of two ways, generally speaking: sprawled and limbshanging, so that it can cool down, or curled up with its tail onits face, to warm up.

One reason that red pandas do things likesleep in trees is because they have a number of predators. Unlikecreatures like, for example, the jaguar, red pandas are not apexpredators. An apex predator is a carnivore or hunting animal ofsome kind that has no natural enemies, other than possibly humans.A red panda is not one of these at all.

One of the better known predators of the redpanda is the snow leopard. Both are beautiful species and somewhatendangered. The snow leopard is an apex predator. Another predatorof the red panda is the marten. A marten is actually somewhatrelated to the red panda, but it's the more dangerous animal andwill eat the red panda if it gets the chance.

The last main predators of the red panda arehumans. That's an entirely different thing than the hunting done bysnow leopards and martens, however.

Red pandas are not very good at handlingdifferent temperatures. They need to be at a sort of lukewarmtemperature, somewhere between seventeen and twenty-five degreesCelsius, or in the sixties or seventies Fahrenheit. It does itsbest at these temperatures. Now, a red panda can survive in othertemperatures, but it really doesn't do well about about twenty-fivedegrees Celsius, or seventy-seven degrees Fahrenheit.

When they wake up in the morning, red pandastend to groom themselves, licking their paws and fur. This is kindof like house cats, which is another reason there is so muchconfusion about where the red panda belongs in the animalfamily.

Then, after doing this grooming routine, ared panda will make its territory again, rubbing its body againstthings like trees and rocks. They also use urine (pee) and aspecial scent that comes from their anal glands (glands in the rearend) to mark their territory.

Red pandas, despite their sharp claws, arenot really fighters. They tend to run when they feel scared,heading up a tree or something else they can climb. When they can'trun, instead, they stand on their back paws and try to look big.This is when they will use their claws to fight, though they muchprefer not to.