• Red Pandas are small mammals with long, fluffy tails and red and white markings.

• Though they share a name with the more famous giant panda, they are not closely related.
  

• The name 'panda' was first applied to these animals
  

• The Red Panda was first discovered in 1825 by a French zoologist and about 48 years before the giant panda
  

• He named it Ailurus fulgens, meaning fire-colored, or shining cat.

• They are about the size of a house cat, and have long, bushy tails to help them maintain their balance as they climb trees

• The red panda is considered endangered and is on IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species. This decline of the Red Panda population is almost solely due to deforestation.