Biology of the Red Panda

The red pandas stomach and digestive system is similar to other carnivores, having a simple stomach and short intestine. This means it's designed to digest meat and not plant matter which makes it very difficult to maintain the nutrients from all the bamboo they eat which is about 98 percent of their diet. With their short gut, food passes through them relatively quickly taking only about 2 to 4 hours while they only digest about 25 percent of their daily bamboo intake.

The red panda has a body and skeletal system similar to a cat that allows it to climb very well and even walk vertically down a tree stump. Additionally, their long tails help keep their balance as they are always on trees. As stated earlier, they have a unique extra bone on the hand that allows for gripping the trees really well. This useful bone also helps hold bamboo easier in order to be eaten. Speaking of eating, their skull shows their teeth as razor sharp and large to chew through the thick bamboo.

Red pandas aren't any special or different when it comes to breathing. They breathe the same as any mammal, bird, or human being. Inside the alveoli, oxygen travels across the paper thin walls of small blood vessels, called capillaries and into the bloodstream. It is then picked up by red blood cells and is carried throughout the body. However, red pandas do test odors using the underside of their tongue, which has a cone-like structure for gathering liquid and bringing it close to a gland inside its mouth. The red panda is the only carnivore with this adaptation.

During mating season, a male and female red panda will get together and breed once during early winter. However, adult red pandas seldom interact with each other outside of mating season. Their mating call is a husky, rapid vibrato that’s commonly known as the bleat. Scent-markings increase, and the female invites the male to mount on top of her, on the ground. After being pregnant for about 114 to 134 days, the females proceed to build birthing dens in stumps, hollow trees, or rock crevices. The father red panda leaves and doesn’t help raise the children as red pandas prefer to live in solitary.

Mother red pandas have to be fortunate enough to get pregnant as they only ovulate once a year. Not only that, but the window that a male red panda has to inseminate the female while she has an egg ready is only about 36 to 40 hours. If they miss their chance, they would have to wait a whole other year. They will wait until the hours between 4pm and 9am to give birth. Mother red pandas give birth to small cubs who already have fur on them in order to protect them from their cold environment. The mother can recover and try to get pregnant again in the following years.

After mating season, the mother red panda can be pregnant for up to 134 days. She then gives birth to a litter of 1 to 4 cubs who stay in the nest for about 90 days and remain close to their mothers until the next mating season. The mother can recognize each cub by their scent, and she would frequently move the cubs among several nests. At about 18 to 20 months, the little red pandas reach maturity and move on to start the life cycle all over again. In the Northern Hemisphere, mating season is from January through March, while it extends from June to August in the Southern Hemisphere.