What animal has a dark striped rust colored tail, is slightly larger than a big housecat, resembles a raccoon but is a cousin of the giant panda? If you said red panda you are correct!

The Zoo’s newest residents have adapted well to their exhibit right outside the Animal Kingdom Building. If you don’t see them on the ground, look up – they are climbers and love to be overhead.

Red pandas are called by many names including lesser panda, wah, and red cat bear. The name wah came from the sound of its loud call. They are native to the bamboo forests of the Himalayan mountains. Pandas love weather that is cool and moist (their inside quarters will be air conditioned this summer) and are most active in the early morning and late afternoon.

In the wild, red pandas eat mostly bamboo leaves. They will occasionally eat berries, mushrooms, grasses and bark. Our horticulture department has learned this first hand – our two pandas have developed a real taste for some of the small shrubs that were planted in their exhibit!

Red pandas do eat some meat so they are omnivores. They eat insects, bird eggs, baby birds and may even catch and eat a mouse. In the Zoo they eat specially made “panda biscuits” and enjoy fresh bamboo. A red panda can eat approximately 200,000 bamboo leaves in one day! The panda has a special wrist bone that allows them to grasp the bamboo and eat it like a carrot stick.

In the wild, female red pandas build dens in hollow trees or rock crevices. After an average of 4 ½ months (female pandas can delay implantation making forecasting a due date very difficult) they usually give birth to 2 young. The young attain adult size at twelve months.

Our two residents are a male and female. Captive red pandas usually live between 8-10 years.

Visit the Zoo and meet these beautiful animals.