Red Panda
laelaps | April 13, 2010
A red panda (Ailurus fulgens, left, photographed at the Bronx Zoo) and a giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca, right, photographed at the National Zoo).
As the paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould observed in one of his most famous essays, the thumbs of giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) are nothing at all like the large digits on our own hands. Their accessory "thumbs", visible on the surface as a differentiated part of the pad on the "palm" of the hand, are modified sesamoid bones derived from the wrist. They are jury-rigged bits of anatomy which cast nature as an "excellent tinkerer, not…
gregladen | October 17, 2008ZooBorns is a new site dedicated to scarfing up everyone else's internet traffic by posting nothing but cute baby animals, like these Red Panda Cubs recently born in the Edmonton Valley Zoo:
Zooborn is produced by Chris and Andrew, who are very dedicated animal-symps. Andrew runs the blog Zooillogix.
ZooBorns brings you the newest and cutest exotic animal babies from zoos and aquariums around the world. As you can see, the site itself is a newborn, but we're here to stay, so check back frequently for new critters!
The Red Panda (Ailurus fulgens) lives in central/southern Asia (China, India…
laelaps | October 19, 2007
Although I've been able to capture some good Red Panda (Ailurus fulgens) pictures when the animals have been bright-eyed and busy-tailed (then again, aren't they always bushy-tailed?), I love this shot because I was able to make a "boring" sleeping subject seem more interesting. It was taken at the National Zoo in Washington D.C. this past spring at about 6 AM and the two red pandas sleeping in the trees did not move the entire day.
If you want to know more about these fascinating (and endangered) mammals, Jeremy at The Voltage Gate ran a multi-part series about them earlier this year; Part…