The red panda, Ailurus fulgens, is the only living representative of the family Ailuridae—an ancient branch of the carnivore family tree with a fossil history stretching back millions of years.
Fossil ailurids first appeared during the Miocene Epoch.
Their remains have been found across Europe, Asia and North America, showing that the family once enjoyed a much wider distribution than it does today.
One spectacular relative was Simocyon batalleri, a puma-sized ailurid that lived in Spain during the Late Miocene.
Fossils show that it possessed an enlarged wrist bone forming a “false thumb,” much like the one living red pandas use to grasp bamboo.
Because Simocyon was not a dedicated bamboo eater, researchers think this useful bit of anatomy may have evolved for climbing before being repurposed as a dining utensil. Evolution is wonderfully thrifty that way.
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Discoveries like this reveal that ancient red panda relatives once scampered through North American forests—not merely the misty mountains of Asia. Research on fossil ailurids and the false thumb
Today, wild red pandas inhabit cool temperate forests along the Himalayas and adjoining mountain ranges in Nepal, Bhutan, India, northern Myanmar and southwestern China.
They depend on forests with dense bamboo growing beneath the canopy and spend much of their time climbing, feeding or sleeping draped comfortably across a branch.
Despite belonging to the mammalian order Carnivora and possessing the digestive system of a meat eater, red pandas survive primarily on bamboo. They must eat a great deal of it because their bodies are not particularly efficient at extracting energy from such fibrous food.
Their long, ringed tails help them balance among the branches and can be wrapped around the body like a warm scarf in chilly mountain weather. Their reddish coats may also provide surprisingly effective camouflage among red mosses, lichens and shadowy tree trunks.
Red pandas are generally solitary, excellent climbers and capable of descending trees headfirst by rotating their ankles—an uncommon and very useful trick when your dining room is several metres above the ground. When alarmed, they may rear onto their hind legs to appear larger.
It is a bold display from an animal weighing only about as much as a well-fed house cat.
Sadly, these remarkable survivors are endangered. Forest loss, habitat fragmentation, livestock pressure and poaching continue to threaten the remaining wild populations.
The red panda is all that remains of a once widespread evolutionary dynasty—and a very good reason to protect the mountain forests it still calls home.
