Red Panda Or Lesser Panda?

[snowleopard]

Red pandas are regarded as adorable little creatures by many zoo visitors, even though they are mistakenly called raccoons on numerous occasions. My wife's favourite animal is a red panda and she has over 25 different stuffed toys of red pandas from all of our zoo visits. We've also bought some duplicates over the years because it's impossible to remember which ones we own! Anyway, in a lot of Asian zoo literature the red panda is referred to as the lesser panda, or in some cases a firefox. In the western zoos that I have visited I believe that all of them have had a sign declaring the inhabitant to be a "red panda". What is the signage like in European zoos? Red, Lesser, or something else?

I found this information on wikipedia:

The Western name "Red Panda" has no conclusive source. The most likely origin is from the Nepali word ponya. The Red Panda is also known as the Wah because of its distinctive cry. This name was given to it by Thomas Hardwicke, when he introduced it to Europeans in 1821. It is called a Cat Bear because it was thought to be related to a small bear and washes itself like a cat by licking its entire body. Other names include Bear Cat, Bright Panda, Common Panda, Fire Fox, Red Fox, Fox Bear, Himalayan Raccoon, Lesser Panda, Cokoloaca Pigara, Gambawarella, Nigalya Ponya, Panda Chico, Panda Éclatant, Panda Rojo, Petit Panda, Poonya, Crimson Ngo, Red Cat, Sankam, Small Panda, Thokya, Wah, Wokdonka, Woker and Ye.

 

[foz]

As far as I'm aware In the Uk they are known as red panda, but it would be interesting to see a display to show all the names mentioned above. I particularly like 'firefox'.

 

[Maguari]

I would always say Red Panda; 'Lesser Panda' to me sounds a bit antiquated, though it quite often turns up in the English translations at continental zoos. I'm sure zoo historian and sometime zoo owner Clin Keeling used to refer to the species as 'Common Panda' (anyone confirm if I'm remembering this correctly?).

 

[Tim May]

Clin Keeling used to refer to the species as 'Common Panda' (anyone confirm if I'm remembering this correctly?).

Agreed; Clin Keeling did, indeed, refer to this species as the 'common panda'.

 

[mstickmanp]

If I remember correctly, the San Diego Zoo calls the Lesser Pandas.

 

[Pertinax]

Red panda exhibits.

As an extension of this thread,, does anyone know of Nocturnal exhibits for these great little creatures?

In Europe(at least) the conventional method is to surround a large tree(or trees)with a low-walled pit, with usually a kennel-type sleeping box in the branches and on the ground. The Pandas are very often curled up asleep high up or moving about in the slow,deliberate rather sleepy fashion night-active or crepuscular animals often use during daylight hours. I would like to know how they behave under darkness conditions though.

 

[^Chris^]

My chinese housemate calls them bear cats, or cat bears, I can't remember which. Confusingly, I think binturongs are also referred to as Bear Cats.

 

[Zooish]

As an extension of this thread,, does anyone know of Nocturnal exhibits for these great little creatures?

In Europe(at least) the conventional method is to surround a large tree(or trees)with a low-walled pit, with usually a kennel-type sleeping box in the branches and on the ground. The Pandas are very often curled up asleep high up or moving about in the slow,deliberate rather sleepy fashion night-active or crepuscular animals often use during daylight hours. I would like to know how they behave under darkness conditions though.

The Night Safari in Singapore used to display Red Pandas a few years back and they were quite active at night, at least during the early part of the night (just after sunset).

They couldn't really adapt to the hot climate here, so they were sent to other temperate zoos.

 

[Zooish]

My chinese housemate calls them bear cats, or cat bears, I can't remember which. Confusingly, I think binturongs are also referred to as Bear Cats.

The Chinese characters for panda are literally "bear" and "cat". Most of the mainland Chinese refer to them as bear cat. People in Taiwan call them cat bear.

 

[European Fauna]

Common Panda - well they certainly are common in European Zoos. Any urban-dwelling visitor who has been to a few zoos in Europe will certainly have seen more of this species than they will have seen let's say badgers or foxes both in zoos and free-living combined.