Red Panda


In the Wild:

The red panda is specialized as a bamboo feeder with strong, curved and sharp semi-retractile claws. Like the giant panda, it has a “false thumb” that is an extension of the wrist bone. When descending a tree headfirst, the red panda rotates its ankle to control its descent. It is a territorial animal, which is generally solitary except during mating season. The species is also generally quiet except for some twittering, tweeting, and whistling communication sounds.

Conservation Status:

Wild population is less than 10,000 individuals and decreasing. Threats include: being taken from the wild, competition with domestic livestock and deforestation resulting in habitat loss or fragmentation.

Zoo Location Red Panda enclosure

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Quick Facts

  • Lifespan: Up to 15 years
  • Distribution: Ranges from the foothills of western Nepal to China in the east
  • Habitat: Temperate forests of the Himalayas

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WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING...

  • The education team are truly inspirational and clearly love the job they do. The children and adults all had a great time and will have many memories of the animals they had a chance to meet and handle. Thank you so much for taking the time to incorporate polar bear into your session as this helped to make it a more purposeful session for the children. Seeing their faces when they saw the pictures from our story on your board was priceless! The children loved seeing all the animals around the park and I wish you had been there to see them ask ALL the animals “Do you want to be friends with Polar Bear” and when the animals ran off the children said ” We will take that as a no then”. We look forward to coming back in the future.

  • The children enjoyed and appreciated all you and your colleagues did – they gave us a lot of helpful and constructive information. Your classroom is looking great – you have created such a lovely inviting place for the children. I filled in a visitors questionnaire today because it was so nice to visit again. Shepreth is a lovely place to be, without trying to sell itself or have that ‘glossy commercial’ look that so many attractions have these days. Its just a very genuine place quietly getting on with lots of good work and, I am sure, creating a very loyal following among all who encounter it – in short, a rare treasure!

  • I thoroughly recommend the outreach programme. The presence of live animals in the classroom inspired my students and helped their understanding of many parts of the science national curriculum. The interpretation officers are informative and very knowledgeable. They pitched their presentation at the appropriate level, encouraging students to ask many questions and were happy to discuss my needs before the talk to ensure its relevance to my class. The whole event was a very easy way to organise a really exciting experience.

  • This was the third time that we have had the Shepreth outreach team visit us at school and it was an excellent visit as always.  The team arrived on time and set up quickly.  They had brought with them an excellent range of age appropriate animals and they were extremely knowledgeable and informative.  The session was very ‘hands on’ and the staff were sensitive to the needs of the group that they were working with, tailoring questions to suit.  The children all had a wonderful learning experience and were amazed by the animals, they were very excited by the opportunity to touch some extrelmely unusual species.  It was a wonderful afternoon, enjoyed by all, and we will definitely be booking again next year!

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