Meet the Animals! Aria and Mo the Red Panda

These are the resident red pandas, Aria and Mo. Aria is 6 and Mo is 12. He’s also the one with 3 teeth and really short legs.

Red pandas, although called “panda”, are not related to giant pandas or bears, so are not in the Urisdae family, but in their own unique taxonomic family, Ailuridae, and are more closely related to Mustelids, such as otters, badgers, weasels and stoats.

Red pandas mainly eat bamboo, and eat around 2-4lbs of bamboo a day, but can only digest 24%! They are an arboreal animal, mainly living in trees, and have some unique adaptations because of this.

- Red pandas use their long tails to help with balance in trees and on ground.

- They have sharp, semi retractable claws built for climbing.

- They have a specialised wrist bone that acts as a thumb to help them grip onto bamboo and branches

- They have flexible ankles that can rotate up to 180 degrees to help them ascend and descend trees. This also means they can go down head first!

Mo and Aria are a couple, and can often be seen cuddling up to each other. Mo is classed as the “baby” since he has shorter legs, which has unfortunately given him arthritis, which is being maintained through medication. Mo is more friendly and loves being around people, and Aria is still slightly skittish.