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Chengdu Panda Base visit and facts
Tags China, Roxane’s Travels, Wild Profile, wildlife conservation
At The FluffList, we care about all of nature’s creatures. This month, Roxane visited the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Sichuan China where she got up close to China’s “other” cats, who have a few surprising things in common with our beloved big cats!
Get Your Ps Right — There Is Only One Panda
Firstly, let’s clarify an important point: there is only one real panda, and it’s not the giant panda, but Chengdu Panda Base’s other resident: the red panda. Also known as the lesser panda, the red bear-cat or the red cat-bear, this red-furred mammal is not related to the black and white giant panda (sometimes called panda bear, or simply panda).
The latter belongs to the bear family (Ursidae), whereas the red panda belongs to its own taxonomically unique family, the Ailuridae, of which it is the sole extant representative! It is believed that the red panda has no close living relatives, and that his nearest fossil ancestors, Parailurus, lived…
