The red pandas of the Eastern Himalayas live in dense, temperate forests where red moss and white lichen cover the branches, and bamboo grows down below. They flit through the trees around dusk and dawn, eating up to a third of their body weight each day in bamboo shoots and leaves – nibbling in a dainty fashion. When the opportunity arises, they snatch eggs and small animals in their small, bear-like claws.
Red pandas turn up on social media frequently, walking on their hind legs or playing in pairs. In the wild, they live mostly in isolation, outside of the mating season, and face many threats from human development and poaching. According to the San Diego Zoo, there may now be as few as 2,500 left in the world, while the International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the animal as endangered.
