Species Saturday Vol 3: Red Pandas (The Original Panda)

This Species Saturday marks International Red Panda day, who will be wearing their red panda socks today 🙋🏼‍♀️

Some fun facts for you:

🎉 They were given the name 'panda' roughly 50 years before it was used for the Giant Pandas, so technically they are the original panda!
🎉 The have a false thumb, which is an extension of their wrist, and has evolved to them climb trees
🎉 Okay this is a fun one - they are both vegetarian and carnivores?!

So turns out being a carnivore doesn't necessarily refer to them eating meat but could be about their biological order, and in this case it means they are descended from carnivores but actually only ever eat bamboo.

So pretty interesting animals - and pretty damn cute too!