LIVE RED PANDA WEBCAM AT OKLAHOMA CITY ZOO

More info: Red pandas were at first classified as relatives of raccoons in the Procyonidae family, due to physical similarities, such as the head, teeth and ringed tail. Later, because of some DNA similarities, they were classified as bears in the Ursidae family but more recent genetic research now places them in their own family, Ailuridae.

Red pandas have large round heads and short snouts with large, pointed ears. Their coats are reddish-brown, although their faces are mostly white with reddish 'tear tracks' extending from their eyes to the corner of their mouths. Red pandas have long, bushy tails with alternating red and white rings. The tail helps them maintain their balance when climbing trees. They are similar in size to a domestic cat.

Red pandas live in the mountains of Nepal, central China and northern Myanmar in rainy, high-altitude temperate forests and tropical forests. The forest must have a bamboo understory for it to be viable for the red panda. Bamboo consists of 85 to 95 percent of their diet. Red pandas eat bamboo shoots and bamboo leaf tips, stripping them off the stems with their mouths. They may also forage for roots, grasses and fallen fruits. Sometimes, they will eat eggs, insects, birds and small mammals as well, but they mostly stick to bamboo. While it is a big part of their diet, red pandas can digest only about 24 percent of the bamboo they eat. They need to consume 20 to 30 percent of their body weight, or about 1 to 2 kg of bamboo shoots and leaves per day.