Red Panda

AILURUS FULGENS FULGENS

The Brandywine Zoo has two red pandas – Sherman and Mohu. Sherman was born at the Detroit Zoo in 2012, and Mohu was born at the Sequoia Park Zoo in 2013. Both came to live here at the Brandywine Zoo in 2018.
If you are trying to figure out who is who – it’s easy! Mohu has a lot of white on her face, while Sherman is a bit bigger, and has more red on his face.

THREATS & CONSERVATION

Deforestation (commercial logging, demand for firewood, clearing for habitation and farming, jhum (slash-and-burn shifting cultivation) by hill tribes, grazing of domestic stock, monoculture forest plantation) has led to reduced food supply for the red pandas, and habitat fragmentation threatens their ability to move about their territories. Red pandas are also hunted for their fur.

Fun Facts

The word panda is derived from a Nepalese term ‘ponva’ for “eater of bamboo”

The Chinese name for the red panda is “HUNHO,” which in English means firefox

Unlike other carnivores, red panda molars have an elaborate crown pattern, an adaptation for chewing bamboo

Red pandas are most closely related to raccoons, but they are the only living species in their taxonomic family

Males leave a scent track that they secrete from the pads of their feet.