What is the difference between giant pandas and red pandas?
Although they are both called pandas, the giant panda and the red panda are not the same creature, so do you know where their differences lie?
1. Where is the difference between giant pandas and red pandas?
The giant panda is a species endemic to China, one of the cutest animals in the world, and also China's national treasure; it is a Class I nationally protected animal in China. The red panda, however, is a Class II nationally protected animal that looks like a cat but is larger and fatter than a cat, and is widely distributed in Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar and Nepal.
2. Related introduction to giant pandas and red pandas
Giant panda:
1. Appearance
The giant panda has a stout, bear-like body, plump and well-fed in appearance, with a round head and a short tail. The head and body length is 1.2-1.8 m, and the tail length is 10-12 cm. The body weight is 80-120 kg, with the heaviest reaching 180 kg; captive pandas are slightly heavier, and males are generally slightly larger than females. The fur on the head and body is distinctly black and white, but the black is not pure black, nor is the white pure white; rather, the black has a brownish tinge and the white has a yellowish tinge.
2. Habitat
The giant panda lives in the high mountains and deep valleys of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River in China, on the windward side of the southeast monsoon, where the climate is cool and humid, with humidity often above 80%; it is a moisture-loving animal.
3. Food
The giant panda relies almost entirely on bamboo for its survival. Among the more than 50 kinds of plants it naturally feeds on in the wild, bamboos account for more than half, and they make up 99% of its annual food intake. Among these, its favorites include 7 species such as the umbrella bamboo and the Fargesia nitida.
4. Reproduction
Female giant pandas come into estrus once a year, each time for only a brief 2-3 days, usually from March to May each year. The gestation period of the giant panda is 83-200 days, and the cubs are usually born around August.
Red panda:
1. Appearance
The red panda has a stout body covered with coarse long fur. The body length is 40-63 cm, and the tail length is more than half the body length; the body weight is generally about 5 kg. The head is short and broad, the muzzle protrudes, the face is round, and there are white patches on the cheeks.
2. Habitat
It mainly lives in places with bamboo groves in mixed coniferous and broad-leaved forests or evergreen broad-leaved forests below 3000 m in altitude.
3. Food
It likes to eat the bamboo shoots, tender branches and bamboo leaves of arrow bamboo, as well as various wild fruits, tree leaves, mosses, and it also preys on small birds, bird eggs, other small animals, insects, etc. It is especially fond of foods with a sweet taste.
4. Reproduction
The red panda generally comes into estrus between March and April in early spring, with a gestation period of 117-122 days, and gives birth from May to July, with 2-3 cubs per litter and occasionally 4.