What animal adaptations has the Red Panda undergone?, What traits help it survive in the wild?
Red pandas belong to the order Carnivora, which would make one assume that they are carnivores (eat meat). However, they are primarily herbivores like their cousins the Giant Panda. They do supplement their bamboo diet with other things – bird eggs, small mammals, insects, berries, fruits, other plants – when it can get them. Eating a variety of foods is adaptive – the red pandas can still get energy and nutrients even if their preferred food is unavailable. Like the Giant Panda, red pandas have developed a “thumb”, however in giant pandas this thumb is used to hold bamboo so they can munch on it, whereas in the red panda it is used to get a better grip on the trees in which the red panda lives. This “thumb” has been a source of contention when examining the relationship between these two species – for a long time they were grouped together under the same genus, but recently the red panda was moved to its own genus and its own family – Ailuridae.
