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.