The endangered Red 'Panda'

Look at that adorable little face! This red panda, which more closely resembles a raccoon than it does a black and white panda is on the endangered list. It is thought that fewer than 2,500 adults still exist.

These adorable creatures, who were once included in the same family as panda bears and then included in the same family as raccoon, now has its own categorization. It is listed in the Ailuridae family. There are no other animals in that category currently.

These bamboo eaters are approximately 42 inches long, including the tail. They weigh between seven and 14 pounds. Its fur is a beautiful red (which deepens in the winter) and white about the back and the face. Its tail is brownish red. And interestingly, their bellies, legs, and feet are black.

Although the red panda really has little in common with the panda bear other than common habitat, they have a common name. It has been said that this little creature had the name "panda" before it was later given to the panda bear as. The panda bear was thought to look like a bigger version of the red panda so it was dubbed the "giant panda."

The biggest threat to the red panda is said to be humans. They are hunted for their pelts. Further, their habitats are being disturbed by people moving into their area. Their main "natural predator" is the snow leopard.

Unfortunately, the red panda gives birth once a year to one or two babies. The babies stay with their mothers until the following year when new babies are born. Young red pandas are able to reproduce at about the age of 18 months.

These beautiful creatures live to be about 8 to 10 years old, though they have been known to live to be about 15 years old in captivity.

The Red Panda, an Endangered Species

Dwarfed by Its Black-and-White Relative, This Panda Goes Unnoticed

In 2008, Paramount Pictures released the animated film, Kung Fu Panda. The lead character was a bumbling giant panda bear named Po, voiced by Jack Black. Kids immediately recognized Po's fat, black-and-white-furred exterior as that of a giant panda. When kids first saw Po's teacher, Master Shifu (voiced by Dustin Hoffman), they probably had a much more difficult time distinguishing what type of animal the character represented. Was it some weird kind of bunny-raccoon-mouse combination?

Fortunately, all is revealed. Po is not the only panda bear in the film. Shifu, too, is a panda - a red panda.

What is a Red Panda?

Red pandas, also known as red cat bears or lesser pandas, make up the species Ailurus fulgens. They resemble raccoons in size and shape and are not much bigger than the average house cat. As their name implies, their coat is reddish-brown with white areas, particularly around the ears, cheeks, nose, and eyes. They are approximately 38-44 inches long, not quite half of which is made up of their long, bushy tails. These tails are ringed and help red pandas to balance and to keep warm. They have sharp claws, built for climbing, and cat-like whiskers. They rarely weigh more than 14 lbs.

Red pandas generally live from eight to ten years. These animals prefer to live alone, except during mating season. Females care for their young for about three months. Males have little to do with their offspring.

Where Do Red Pandas Live?

Red pandas mostly live in the Sichuan and Yunnan Provinces of China, Myanmar, and Nepal. They live at cool, high-altitude climates, up to 13,000 feet above sea level. They are scattered amongst the Himalayan foothills, where there is plenty of rainfall and thick forest.

According to the World Wildlife Federation's (WWF) website, red pandas are divided into two sub-species:

"The Styan's red panda (Ailurus fulgens styani) is found in China’s Sichuan and Yunnan provinces and northern Myanmar. The western red panda (Ailurus fulgens fulgens) is native to Nepal, Bhutan and the northern Indian states of Assam and Sikkim."

Red pandas spend much of their time above ground, climbing and sleeping in trees.

What Do Red Pandas Eat?

Red pandas are primarily herbivores. Like their giant brethren, red pandas feed off bamboo. They bend the shoots in order to reach their leaves. Although the pandas' primary food sources are bamboo leaves, they also eat berries, nuts, and insects.

Why Are Red Pandas Endangered?

According to the WWF, red pandas are "highly endangered." They were given this dubious distinction in 1988. Their habitat, like that of the giant panda, is shrinking due to deforestation. Bamboo forests in China and Nepal have been cut down so that the land may be put to agricultural uses. The plant is also used as timber for homes and firewood.

Although these pandas are protected internationally and within Nepal, "over 75% of potential red panda habitat falls outside protected areas," says the WWF. Some sources, such as the Smithsonian National Zoological Park, estimate that less than 2,500 red pandas remain in the wild.

In addition to loss of habitat, red pandas must avoid predators. Although they have some natural enemies, such as snow leopards, the pandas have humans to fear the most. According to the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology website, red pandas are "illegally hunted and sold to zoos or killed for their skin. Very few zoos purchase these illegal specimens, making this a fairly unproductive business, but skins can be found in local villages and are used in cultural ceremonies."

What Can Be Done to Protect Red Pandas?

Noble organizations like the WWF and the Red Panda Network greatly assist in educating the public about the red panda's plight. The WWF and its partners work closely with Nepal's government to study these spirited animals, to conserve the species and its habitats, and to inform local communities about dangers threatening red pandas.

The objective of the Red Panda Network's Red Panda Project "is to conduct non-invasive, cost-effective status surveys throughout the red panda’s range by 2011." The Project is conducting extensive research to obtain baseline population figures in order to propose an effective species conservation program.

Zoos, too, play a hand in conservation. According to the Red Panda Network:

"More than 80 zoos currently have red pandas, and almost all of them participate in a management program to ensure the survival of a viable zoo population. In North America, the red panda population management program is called the Red Panda Species Survival Program (SSP). The SSP keeps a studbook of all red pandas on the continent, determines which animals should be mated, and develops long-term research and management strategies for the species. Other management programs have been created in Japan, Europe, Australia, and China."

Certainly, the efforts of these organizations are commendable. But real conservation efforts must come from the governments of China, Myanmar, and Nepal. The government of Nepal has done more than most when it comes to protecting an endangered animal. Still, its people depend on the natural resources from the red panda's habitat to survive. According to the Red Panda Network, these people lack viable alternatives. The Network hopes to "create a new system in which conserving the red panda's prime habitat will actually benefit the surrounding communities."

Until that happens, the red panda's ecosystem will continue to diminish. But endangered animals that were worse off than these pandas have been brought back from the brink of extinction, largely due to the efforts of organizations like the WWF and animal-friendly governments. Only time will tell if the red panda will thrive or go the way of the dodo.

Red Pandas Reveal An Unexpected (Artificial) Sweet Tooth

Researchers from the Monell Center report that the red panda is the first non-primate mammal to display a liking for the artificial sweetener aspartame. This unexpected affinity for an artificial sweetener may reflect structural variation in the red panda's sweet taste receptor.

The findings may shed light on how taste preferences and diet choice are shaped by molecular differences in taste receptors.

"The red panda's unique taste receptor gives us a tool to broaden our understanding of how we detect sweet taste," said the paper's senior author, Joseph G. Brand, PhD, a biophysicist at Monell. "Greater insight into why we like artificial sweeteners could eventually lead to the development of more acceptable sugar substitutes, potentially benefiting diabetics and other individuals on sugar-restricted diets."

Many species like sweet-tasting foods, but there are some exceptions. In an earlier study, Brand and Monell comparative geneticist Xia Li, PhD, reported that cats – both domestic and wild – can not taste sweets due to a defect in one of the genes that codes for the sweet taste receptor.

The current research extended those findings by relating sweet preferences to genetic analyses of sweet receptor structure in six related species. Like the cat, each of the species tested -- red panda, ferret, genet, meerkat, mongoose, and lion -- belongs to the Order Carnivora.

The species, although closely related, vary widely with regard to the types of foods they eat. For example, lions, like other cats, are obligate carnivores, meaning that they eat almost exclusively meat. Meerkrats are mainly insectivores, while red pandas are primarily herbivores that almost exclusively eat bamboo leaves and shoots.

By studying the structure and function of the sweet receptor gene across species and how this relates to differences in taste preferences and diet selection, the researchers seek to provide a framework to increase understanding of individual differences in human taste function, food choice and nutritional health.

"The taste world of every species, and even every individual, is unique, defined in part by the structure of their taste receptors," said Li. "We need to know more about these differences and how they influence our diet."

In the study, published online in the Journal of Heredity, preferences for six natural sugars and six artificial sweeteners were tested in a zoo setting. For each sweet molecule, the animal was given access to both the sweet solution and water for 24 hours. The animal was said to prefer the sweet solution when it drank much more sweet fluid than water.

DNA samples from each species were used to examine the structure of the sweet receptor gene Tas1r2, which codes for the T1R2 sweet taste receptor. T1R2 is one of two taste receptors that join together to recognize sweetness.

The sweet taste receptors contain binding sites for a variety of natural sugars and artificial sweeteners. However, species vary regarding which sites they possess, due to subtle differences in receptor structure.

As expected from the previous findings, the lion did not prefer any of the sweet solutions. This could be explained by its defective Tas1r2 gene, which prevents the lion from expressing a functional sweet taste receptor. With no sweet receptor, the lion is unable to detect – or prefer – sweet-tasting compounds.

Each of the remaining species preferred at least some of the natural sugars. Consistent with having a functional sweet receptor, Tas1r2 genes from these species did not show the defect found in lion and other cats.

Because only primates were believed to be able to taste aspartame, the researchers predicted that none of the Carnivore species tested would show a preference for the artificial sweeteners.

This indeed was the case for five of the species. However, the sixth species – the red panda – drank large amounts of the artificial sweeteners aspartame, neotame, and sucralose.

Seeking to explain this unexpected behavior, the researchers compared Tas1r2 genes from various species that can and cannot taste aspartame. They were surprised to find no consistent differences between aspartame tasters and nontasters.

However, the genetic analysis did reveal that the red panda's sweet receptor has a unique structure that is different from any of the other species examined.

"This may explain why the red panda is able to taste artificial sweeteners," said Li, who is the paper's lead author. "What we don't know is why this particular animal has this unusual ability. Perhaps the red panda's unique sweet receptor evolved to allow this animal to detect some compound in its natural food that has a similar structure to these sweeteners."

The findings suggest that the receptor mechanisms for sweet taste are more complex than previously suspected. "This is the essence of molecular science," remarked Brand, "Asking a behavioral question and getting a molecular answer."

Future studies will explore how protein structure of taste receptor genes predicts stimulus binding and ultimately provide insight into how variations in taste receptor genes affect taste perception, food choice and nutritional status.

Taste tests for the red panda and other animals in the study were conducted at two zoos in Switzerland by Dieter Glaser, PhD, from the University of Zurich. Also contributing to the study were Monell scientists Gary Beauchamp and Weihua Li, along with Warren Johnson and Stephen O'Brien from the National Cancer Institute.