Home Safari - Red Panda - Cincinnati Zoo

Hi guys! Welcome to another Home Safari Facebook Live. My name is Ellie and we're here with Libby and Paul and we're keepers here at the Cincinnati Zoo and today we're going to be hanging out with some of our red pandas. Before we get started we just want to remind you guys that you can type in any questions you might have. Anything you want to know about red pandas, any questions about these pandas specifically, we'll be happy to get them answered for you. So right now in the yard here we have Lynn. Lynn is six years old. She's a female red panda. Those two right there are her babies and baby red pandas are called cubs and so her two cubs are named Audra and Lenore and they are eight months old. These guys are almost one and when red pandas are one that's when they're old enough to kind of be on their own, kind of go off and make their own families and so they're not quite old enough yet but they but so they're out here hanging with mom and we also have Kenji who is our only male red panda. He is somewhere out in the yard too. He is four years old. Yeah he kind of a little bit more shy when all the girls are out here but if when you do come back to the zoo if you're looking for Kenji you can find him up on the very top of the trees. He likes to take naps on the highest point of the trees there. Red pandas if you didn't know are from the Himalayan mountain region from China all the way down to Nepal and India. There's two species, phulgens and styans. We have phulgens. They are primarily from China. They're a little darker and a little bigger than the phulgens. You can see Audra is a little darker than her sister so there are some color variations in different ones in the zoos. They have very sharp claws. They are excellent climbers. They live up in the trees. They build nests in the trees. You'll see they have a long tail. They'll use that to kind of balance when they climb and they'll wrap it around their face like a scarf to keep them warm. Their right coloration comes from the moss that grows in the trees where they live and as they blend in for camouflage and then dark underbellies when you look up into a tree you'll see that dark underbelly and they blend in that way as well. If you look at their faces they have kind of red teardrops on the face that helps reflect the sunlight and then the white coloration actually luminesces in the dark so cubs can find their mothers so they're pretty cool. The bottoms of their feet don't have pads like a dog or cat. They're all covered in fur. It's for insulation. They can walk through the snow. They are cold hardy animals. They live in the mountains and so they love this type of weather this time of year and in the snow. They do not make good pets unfortunately even though we're in here with them. They do not like to be petted. They do not like to be picked up like a cat. They do not enjoy that at all. Those like I said sharp claws and very strong. Right now we're just feeding them some apple which is a favorite of theirs. They also eat some banana. So these guys are technically carnivores. They have carnivore teeth and a digestive system but they eat primarily bamboo. About roughly 20,000 leaves a day. Nobody knows why. It's just one of those weird little things that happens in nature. They will occasionally catch a small bird or mammal and they will eat that and they'll eat some fruits and mushrooms in the wild. Here we do cut them bamboo in the park and give that to them every day. We also feed them a prepared leaf eater biscuit. It has all the calories and nutrients they need. Annabelle would like to know what their favorite toy is. Favorite toy. I would think we have fire hose hammocks. It's like a big hammock and they love to lay in that and sleep in that. Kenji's right behind Paul there. The male came out. He came to say hi. You can see he's a little bit blonder than the females. It's just one of those things. Every panda is a little different. Some are a little lighter than that. Some are a little darker. Do they like to be bathed? No, they do not like to be bathed. They take care of themselves. They'll clean themselves like a cat would but we do not bathe them. They do not like water. They do not swim. They just drink water. That's all the water they do. They live solitary in the wild. Sometimes you'll see a mom and cubs. A lot of people are asking who their favorite keeper is. I think they like any of the keepers. Paul is a favorite. He's been working with them for a long time, over 30 years. I think they like anybody, especially if you have apples. They'll love you. Red pandas were discovered 50 years before the giant panda. When the giant panda was discovered, they both are from the same region, China. They both are carnivores. They eat primarily bamboo and they both have elongated wrist bones that act like a pseudo thumb. They assumed that they were named giant pandas and these guys were named lesser panda. It hasn't been until recently they did DNA testing and discovered that giant pandas are actually bears. These guys are not. They are not related to anybody. They are in their own family category called a lyridae. The closest they're related to is weasels and mustelids. They are not related to a giant panda. These guys are the true and one and only panda species, which is kind of fun. I don't know if I said this, but their feet do not have pads like a dog or cat. It's all fur. It's a built-in snowshoe, so that's kind of cool. These guys have one to four cubs at a time. They can. One to two is average. Their breeding season is seasonal. It's in January or February. There's one 24-hour period when the female is receptive for having a baby and they'll have the baby. Then somewhere from May to August, June is kind of average, especially for us. June's average. Lynn here obviously had two cubs this year. She had two cubs last year, but one to two has been her. It's been her average. Still waiting for four out of one of our pandas. That'd be kind of cool to see. These guys are endangered. Their habitat is being destroyed, unfortunately, and they're being hunted for their fur and for pet trade. Like I said, pets, they make awful, awful pets. Sharp claws destroy your furniture. They also have a scent gland to base their tail, and they scent mark everywhere. That would be all over your furniture. Like I said, they do not like to be cuddled at all. No picking up, no petting. They do not make a good pet. Where do they sleep in their natural habitat? They sleep up in the trees. They'll lay in the branches and lay across the branches there. Sometimes the females will build a nest when she has cubs, but yeah, up in the trees. What's their favorite food other than apples? Bananas are favorite. Bamboo, they do love bamboo. Whenever you bring that fresh bamboo out there, they'll go right to it and start eating. Do the males weigh more than the females? Not necessarily. You can have males that are larger than females, but it's not, you know, they're average. They average between 15 to 18 pounds, so pandas can be, males and females are not, you know, different. Are they related to raccoons? They are not. They are not related to anybody but themselves. Why does their tail look like a raccoon's? You know, striping, I assume it helps with camouflage. I'm not sure why the striping is, if it, I assume it has to be camouflage when they're up the trees. Do they like cold weather? They love cold weather. These guys live in the mountains of China, you know, in the Himalayans, so they love cold weather. Actually, in the summertime when it's hot, we actually have air conditioning for them to keep them cool because they are, they're covered in fur completely all over. Only their nose and their eyes does not have fur on it, and they do not shed it out, so they're made for cold weather. They love the snow. Do they have a different digestive system than humans? Technically, yes, we're technically omnivores, which we eat meat and plants. They are technically carnivores, which eats primarily meat, and even though these guys do eat primarily bamboo, which is a plant, it's one of those scientific things we do not understand. Gabriella wants to know how much food they eat. They can eat about 20,000 leaves of bamboo a day. We feed them about 300 to 500 grams of our prepared biscuit along with bamboo. We don't probably don't give them 20,000 leaves, but we do give them about four to five stalks per panda a day. Any other questions? Why are their tails so long? They'll use that when they climb, it kind of helps them balance, but they'll actually use it kind of like a scarf. When they curl up in the tree to sleep, they'll wrap it around their face like a scarf and keep them keep themselves warm. Hey, did they go back in? Oh, that's a good question. I don't know that one offhand. I'm sure there's, I'm sure panda means something that I just don't know it offhand. Do you know, Paul? I can't remember. Obviously, the reddish fur. How long do cubs usually stay with their mom? They are probably with mom not quite to a year. They can, they're, but they can stay in the wild to stay up to about a year, but they can leave before then. If you heard that vocalization at all, that's called huff quacking. That is actually the term for that sound. It's one of the ways they vocalize. That's just mom and baby play fighting a little bit there. Nothing serious. What type of meat do they eat? In the wild, they'll catch small birds or small mammals. We don't feed them meat here in the zoo, but in the wild, they have caught a bird here in the exhibit before. He was, he was scent marking there. He had, he's a gland at the base of his tail and he was marking that rock. They are technically called crepuscular, which means they're active at dawn and dusk. These guys are a little more, kind of all day. They'll, they'll sleep more in the heat in the summer during the day, but this time of the weather, when the weather's cool like this, they're definitely very, very active and moving around. Especially right now, they're kind of looking for, looking for the apples we were feeding them. Want to eat it? Do they drink water? They do drink water, yes. Do they have baby teeth? Baby teeth. Oh, I don't know that one off hand. I don't think so. I don't think so. I've never seen any shedded teeth, so. They can live mid to late teens. Uh, we had one that was 17 when she finally passed. There was one, or was that somewhere recently, was in her 20s. Oh yeah. I forget. 22. Yeah, 20, was it 22? What kind of schooling do you need to be a red panda? Uh, what kind of schooling? Uh, some people have biology degrees. I have a zoology degree. Um, kind of experience is a lot. Psychology. People are getting psychology degrees. Psychology degrees, yeah. Okay, I think the pandas are ready to get their afternoon meal, so we're going to wrap this up here, guys. Thank you so much for coming. Uh, if you're able to, we would love for you to donate. That really helps us with this, and we can't wait to see you guys come back into the zoo when we're back open.