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joi, 30 decembrie 2010
Red - Pandas : About they
08:09 | 
Publicat de
Andi
Hey. We thought you would like to learn more about Red Pandas. So. Read this post !! ( Information and Photos from ... site at end - post ).
The red panda has been classified as Vulnerable by IUCN, because its population is estimated at less than 10,000 mature individuals. Although red pandas are protected by national laws in their range countries, their numbers in the wild continue to decline mainly due to habitat loss and fragmentation, poaching, and inbreeding depression.
Head and body of red pandas are 56 to 63 cm (22 to 25 in) long, and their tail about 37 to 47 cm (15 to 19 in). Males weigh 3.7 to 6.2 kg (8.2 to 14 lb) and females 4.2 to 6.0 kg (9.3 to 13 lb). They have long, soft reddish-brown fur on the upper parts, blackish fur on the lower parts, and a light face with tear markings and robust cranial-dental features. The light face has white badges similar to those of a raccoon, but each individual can have distinctive markings. Their roundish head has medium-sized upright ears, a black nose, and very dark eyes: almost pitch black. Their long bushy tail with six alternating yellowish red transverse ochre rings provides balance and excellent camouflage against its habitat of moss- and lichen-covered trees. The legs are black and short with thick fur on the soles of the paws. This fur serves as thermal insulation on snow-covered or ice surfaces and conceals scent glands which are also present on the anus.
Red pandas are excellent climbers, and forage largely in trees. They eat mostly bamboo. Like the Giant Panda, they cannot digest cellulose, so they must consume a large volume of bamboo to survive. Their diet consists of about two-thirds bamboo, but they also eat berries, fruit, mushrooms, roots, acorns, lichen, and grasses. Occasionally, they supplement their diet with young birds, fish, eggs, small rodents, and insects. In captivity, they readily eat meat. They do little more than eat and sleep due to their low-calorie diet.
The red panda (Ailurus fulgens), or shining cat, is a small arboreal mammal native to the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China. It is the only species of the genus Ailurus. Slightly larger than a
domestic cat, it has reddish-brown fur, a long, shaggy tail, and a waddling gait due to its shorter front legs. It feeds mainly on bamboo, but is omnivorous and may also eat eggs, birds, insects, and small mammals. It is a solitary animal, mainly active from dusk to dawn, and is largely sedentary during the day. It is only distantly related to the giant panda.
The red panda has been classified as Vulnerable by IUCN, because its population is estimated at less than 10,000 mature individuals. Although red pandas are protected by national laws in their range countries, their numbers in the wild continue to decline mainly due to habitat loss and fragmentation, poaching, and inbreeding depression.It has been previously classified in the raccoon and bear families, but recent research has placed it in its own family Ailuridae, in superfamily Musteloidea along with Mustelidae, Procyonidae, and Mephitidae. Two subspecies are recognized .
Head and body of red pandas are 56 to 63 cm (22 to 25 in) long, and their tail about 37 to 47 cm (15 to 19 in). Males weigh 3.7 to 6.2 kg (8.2 to 14 lb) and females 4.2 to 6.0 kg (9.3 to 13 lb). They have long, soft reddish-brown fur on the upper parts, blackish fur on the lower parts, and a light face with tear markings and robust cranial-dental features. The light face has white badges similar to those of a raccoon, but each individual can have distinctive markings. Their roundish head has medium-sized upright ears, a black nose, and very dark eyes: almost pitch black. Their long bushy tail with six alternating yellowish red transverse ochre rings provides balance and excellent camouflage against its habitat of moss- and lichen-covered trees. The legs are black and short with thick fur on the soles of the paws. This fur serves as thermal insulation on snow-covered or ice surfaces and conceals scent glands which are also present on the anus.The red panda is specialized as a bamboo feeder with strong, curved and sharp semi-retractile claws standing inward for grasping of narrow tree branches, leaves and fruit. Like the Giant Panda, it has a “false thumb” that is an extension of the wrist bone. When descending a tree headfirst, the red panda rotates its ankle to control its descent, one of the few climbing species to do so.
The red panda is endemic to the temperate forests of the Himalayas, and ranges from the foothills of western
Nepal to China in the east. Its westernmost limit is the Annapurna Range in Nepal, and the easternmost is the Qing Ling Mountains of the Shaanxi Province in China. It is found in southern Tibet, Sikkim, Assam and Bhutan, in the northern mountains of Myanmar, and in southern China in the Hengduan Mountains of Sichuan and Gongshan Mountains in Yunnan. It may also live in southwest Tibet and northern Arunachal Pradesh, but this has not been documented. Locations with the highest density of red pandas include an area in the Himalayas that has been proposed as having been a refuge for a variety of endemic species in the Pleistocene. The distribution range of the red panda should be considered disjunct, rather than continuous. A disjunct population inhabits the Meghalaya Plateau of northeastern India.
The red panda lives between 2,200 and 4,800 meters (7,200 and 15,700 ft) altitude, inhabiting areas of moderate temperature between 10 and 25 °C / 50 and 77 °F with little annual change. It prefers mountainous mixed deciduous and conifer forests, especially with old trees and dense understories of bamboo.
The effective population size of the Sichuan population is larger and more stable than that of the Yunnan population, implying a southward expansion from Sichuan to Yunnan.
The red panda has become extinct in the Chinese provinces of Guizhou, Gansu, Shaanxi and Qinghai.
Bamboo shoots are more easily digested than leaves, exhibiting the highest digestibility in summer and autumn, intermediate digestibility in the spring, and lowest digestibility in the winter. These variations correlate with the nutrient contents in the bamboo. Red pandas process bamboo poorly, especially the cellulose and cell wall components. This implies that microbial digestion plays only a minor role in their digestive strategy. In order to survive on this poor-quality diet, they have to eat the high-quality sections of the bamboo plant such as the tender leaves and shoots in large quantities, over 1.5 kilograms / 3.3 pounds of fresh leaves and 4 kilograms / 8.8 pounds of fresh shoots daily. This food passes through the digestive tract fairly rapidly (~2–4 hours) so as to maximize nutrient intake. Red pandas can taste artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, the only known non-primate to be able to do so.
Informations : http://wikipedia.org/
Photos : http://www.google.com/ and Pandanda_News_Romania
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