Tag: red panda

Tales from the Jungle 15 September | Projects Update Edition

Tales from the Jungle 15 September: Projects Update Edition

Hello, sloth community! This week we have some great news, and we just couldn’t wait until the end of the month to share it with you! What do the numbers 500, 5,000, 200, and 6,000 have in common? Read on and let us tell you.

500

As you may know, we work with Puerto Viejo Dogs (a local pet shelter) to spay and neuter at least 10 rescued dogs every month, and this month we reached our 500th puppy! That’s 500 dogs that get to live healthier, happier lives, and an uncountable number of puppies that won’t be homeless, add to the stray dog population, pass on zoonotic diseases, or harass wildlife.

 

500 dogs spay and neuter

 

Speaking of dogs, have you heard about our latest scientific project to have dogs help us count sloths? Nothing like it has ever been done before, so check out our link to stay abreast of some groundbreaking research!

5,000

We started our Connected Gardens Project in the late 2018 with a tiny tree nursery of no more than a few dozen saplings. Our project has grown so much in the last four years that last Friday we celebrated a really epic milestone: we planted our 5,000th tree!

 

The property that was being reforested used to be a parking lot, but the new owners are committed to making their garden a sloth-friendly place, and worked with us to help plant trees. We are so happy to say that change is possible, and turnabout is only fair play: it was very satisfying to see a parking lot go back to the trees!

200

 

200 almost sloth crossing bridge

We are SO CLOSE to this one! We have put up 196 wildlife bridges so far, and we are only four away from reaching number 200 this month. We still need some sponsors though, so if you’d like to be in on this month of milestones, just think of what bridge number 200 would look like with your name on it!

We’re so close, it could happen! Help us connect the canopy!

6000

Perhaps most impressively, our greatest number this month goes to what might be the most important project of all: passing on our love of sloths, science, and conservation to the next generation.

Our sloth school program has now reached 6,000 students–yes, that’s right six THOUSAND young people have had access to enriched education about nature generally, science especially, and sloths specifically! (And if you can say that last sentence three times fast, you automatically graduate.)

 

school lesson sloth

We work with schools in many countries to get the word out about sloths, though our classes are most popular in Costa Rica, England, and the United States. We have lessons in Spanish and English and are working on adding even more languages!

We like to get out in the forest as much as possible, but when that isn’t feasible, our online classes are available to students all over the world, in any classroom, at any time.

What do sloths have to do with red pandas?

 

sloth red panda infographic

 

September 17th is International Red Panda Day and we are excited to celebrate it with our friends from Red Panda Network in our latest edition of Sloths Vs, in the aptly named “Sloth versus Red Pandas”. Can you guess what these two have in common? No? You’ll just have to read on then, because, rather like sloths, red pandas are really cool!

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Stay tuned for the upcoming Slothtober, and see you in the next Tales From the Jungle!

 

-Sloth Team

Sloth versus Red Panda

Sloth versus Red Panda

Not to be confused with the giant panda, the red panda (Ailurus fulgens) is a small, furry mammal slightly larger than a house cat and completely unrelated to sloths. Red pandas are slightly more related to giant pandas than they are to sloths: the giant and red pandas parted ways just over 30 million years ago… about the time two- and three-fingered sloths diverged.

 

sloth versus red panda
Red Pandas have also been called the “firefox”, “lesser panda”, and “red-cat-bear”. “First panda” and “Original panda” seem more appropriate nicknames because western scientists described them 50 years before the giant panda. Source: Red Panda Network. /Photo: Suzi Eszterhas

 

Convergent evolution

In fact, red pandas and giant pandas, like two-fingered sloths and three-fingered sloths, are examples of convergent evolution. Both species of sloths have evolved to look and act very similar in order to occupy the same ecological niche, whereas the bamboo-eating habits of red and giant pandas have given both animals “false thumbs” in order to better grasp bamboo shoots.

 

red panda versus sloth
Photo: Suzi Eszterhas

Family of their own

Sloths are members of the order Xenarthra, related to armadillos and anteaters; whereas the red panda is in the superfamily Musteloidea, related to skunks and weasels.  (The giant panda, which we’ll stop talking about now, is actually a kind of bear.) Most recent genetic research, however, places red pandas in their own, independent family: Ailuridae. 

 

 

Tell me what you eat and I’ll tell you who you are

Although all Musteloidea are in the order Carnivora, red pandas are not particularly carnivorous, which brings us to our first similarity: like sloths, they eat mostly plants!

via GIPHY

Sloths of course eat only tropical leaves, whereas the red pandas eat primarily bamboo, but they might find some food groups in common if only they lived on the same continent. Or at the same elevation. Or had any overlapping territories at all, really.

 

sloth versus red panda
Photo: Suzi Eszterhas

Tropical rainforest and cold Himalayas

Sloths live in the tropics of the Americas, whereas red pandas live around the borders of the eastern Himalayas, preferably at elevations of 2,000 to 4,300 meters (6,600 to 14,100 feet).

Unfortunately for both of them, deforestation and habitat fragmentation are a worldwide problem, and red pandas are endangered and fighting for their survival due to human-caused threats, currently the poaching and illegal trade of their pelt has emerged as a biggest threat.

 

Red Panda
Red pandas live in the Himalayas in Nepal, India, Bhutan, Myanmar (Burma), and southern China. Photo: Suzi Eszterhas

Cute and solo

Another similarity between these furry would-be friends is that neither of them really has many friends. As in, the kind of friends you hang out with socially. Maybe they maintain some long-distance friendships, but sloths and red pandas are both solitary animals whose adults don’t socialize much except for the necessity of mating.

via GIPHY

Unlike sloths, red pandas are territorial and don’t even invite other red pandas over at all—so perhaps sloths and red pandas should just respect each other’s space and agree to be pen pals.

 

sloth versus red panda
Red pandas are most active in the early morning and late afternoon, and just like sloths, they spend most of the day resting in trees conserving their energy./ Photo: Suzi Eszterhas

 

Red pandas in captivity can live for 14 years—as opposed to sloths, which can exceed 50 years in the case of two-fingered sloths. Both animals have primarily been studied in captivity, and scientists are still learning about how the behavior of wild populations differs from captive ones.

Red Pandas and Sloths in popular culture

Sloths and red pandas make excellent movie stars… in animated films, anyway. From Sid in Ice Age or Pricilla Trippletoe in Zootopia, these iconic creatures are fun to imagine onscreen. Like sloths, red pandas possess an irresistible appeal—just look at those ringed tails, and red and white faces!

 

turning red

 

Mei in Turning Red takes it to a whole new level in Disney Pixar’s latest film, succeeding such red panda icons as Master Shifu, in Kung Fu Panda, and Retsuko of the series Aggretsuko. So long as people’s takeaway from these movies is to respect these creatures in their wild homes and raise awareness of the threats they face (as opposed to thinking they need a sloth or red panda as a pet) this can only be a good thing.

Red Pandas are an endangered species

Wild red pandas, like wild sloths, face many threats to their survival. Conservation of habitat is key, but red pandas face illegal trafficking in greater numbers than sloths. Whereas no one really envies the sloths, their lovely algae-green fur, the thick fluffy tails and skin of the red pandas are considered luxury items by some unscrupulous humans.

 

Red Panda
The global red panda population has declined by 50% in 20 years and there may be as few as 2,500 remaining in the wild. Source: Red Panda Network / Photo: Suzi Eszterhas

 

Last but not least, if you’d like to be a scrupulous human, make all your adoptions of sloths and red pandas virtual ones! Both animals are adorable, but neither makes good pets. Red pandas are mostly nocturnal, not very social, have specialized diets, and (in case that’s not enough) they poop out the equivalent of their own body weight every week! So let’s leave sloths, red pandas, and their respective toilets where they belong—out in the wild.

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The Red Panda Network and The Sloth Conservation Foundation are leading the fight to protect these incredible animals in Nepal and Costa Rica, and you can support their work by making a donation, adopting a Red Panda, or adopting a sloth!