Hi. I was re-watching an episode of the magnificent 'Planet Earth' series the other day and one of the sentences said by my (and I'm sure, everyone else on here's) idol, Sir. David Attenborough, really threw me. The camera was showing a red panda foraging along the forest floor and 'he' said something like, 'these mammals were once thought to be a relative of the raccoon but are now believed to be a small member of the bear family'. I couldn't watch the episode again to write down what he said but he definitely said it that way round - surely Sir. David got this the wrong way round?! My understanding is that red pandas are members of the Procyonidae. Has their taxonomy grouping changed???
Red Panda on 'Planet Earth'!
- Thread starter vs0u2086
- Start date
Yup, most recent reviews place the Red Panda in its own family (Ailuridae).
Hasn't both pandas flipped around in taxonomy quite a bit over the years? I remember when giant pandas were considered raccons...
Meaghan Edwards
Well-Known Member
I remember that too! Mostly through reading old books in school.
red pandas were for a long time considered members of the raccoon family. giant pandas were later added to this group on the assumption that they were in some way closely related to their smaller cousins.
of course giant pandas proved to be exactly what they looked like - bears - and soon after red pandas were moved over to this group also. the belief being that they were ancestors of small, primitive tailed bears. this is further strengthened by the fact that if they are a procyonid - they are the only type outside the americas.
it was around this time that planet earth was filmed.
since then as stated the evidence suggests that the red panda belongs in its own family sharing a distant common ancestor with raccoons and an even more distant ancestor with bears.
so it turns out that the red panda is best described as, well a panda...
of course giant pandas proved to be exactly what they looked like - bears - and soon after red pandas were moved over to this group also. the belief being that they were ancestors of small, primitive tailed bears. this is further strengthened by the fact that if they are a procyonid - they are the only type outside the americas.
it was around this time that planet earth was filmed.
since then as stated the evidence suggests that the red panda belongs in its own family sharing a distant common ancestor with raccoons and an even more distant ancestor with bears.
so it turns out that the red panda is best described as, well a panda...