Herberstein Wildlife Park / Red Panda

Red Panda

Ailurus fulgens

Please, only with air conditioning!
As in so many other zoos, these little bears are among the crowd favorites here, too. In the wild, however, red pandas are becoming increasingly rare because their habitat is being destroyed at an ever-accelerating rate. Like its larger black-and-white relative, the red panda’s favorite food is bamboo. However, since the plant has very little nutritional value, a young red panda needs up to 2 kg of leaves a day!

Did you know?!

Red pandas are native to the cooler regions of Asia; when temperatures rise above 25°C, they begin to suffer from the heat. To ensure they don’t have any problems with our high summer temperatures, their enclosure even has its own air conditioning!

Order	Predators
Family	Red Pandas
Distribution	Nepal, India, Bhutan, Tibet, the western provinces of China
Habitat	Native to mixed forests with dense undergrowth consisting of bamboo thickets.
Food	Bamboo shoots, grasses, occasionally insects, birds, eggs
Activity	Red pandas are crepuscular and nocturnal
Weight	4–6 kg
Size	Body length up to 60 cm, tail length up to 60 cm
Service life	up to 10 years old (zoo: 14 years old)
Reproduction	Red pandas tend to be solitary animals that usually come together with other members of their species only for mating, typically from late December through mid-February. A few days before giving birth, the female begins to gather nesting material. The nest is usually built in a hollow tree or a crevice in a rock. Births occur from late May through early July, always between 4:00 p.m. and 9:00 a.m. local time, during their active period. Gestation period: 120–140 days (1–4 cubs)
Risk	Since 2008, the red panda has been listed as “Endangered” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species. It is estimated that fewer than 10,000 adult red pandas live in the wild.
Enemies	Snow leopard, marten, human

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