5 Random Facts About Red Pandas

1. A Red Panda’s Diet is 98% Bamboo

Red pandas have to eat 20 to 30 percent of their body weight in bamboo — can eat up to 20,000 leaves! — each day. Bamboo doesn’t offer much nutrition and they can only digest about 24 percent of it

2. Red Panda’s Have Six Digits on their Front Paws

Red pandas have a pseudo-thumb: an enlarged, modified wrist bone they use for climbing trees and grabbing bamboo stems and tree branches. Giant pandas have pseudo-thumbs as well but for different reasons. This is an example of “convergent evolution” which is when two unrelated animals faced with similar circumstances evolve to look similar.

3. They Spend Two-thirds of the Day Sleeping

Red pandas will sleep for up to 17 hours a day! They have been identified as both nocturnal and crepuscular (active during twilight hours) and prefer to rest on tree branches or in tree hollows.

4. Red Pandas Quack Like A Duck

While usually quiet creatures, red pandas make a variety of sounds including tweets, squeals, grunts, hisses, and even a “huff-quack”.

5. They Migrate Vertically

Red pandas live in temperate forests at elevations between 4,900 and 13,000 feet and will move lower during the cold, winter months.