Hobbies And Interests
Nesting
All red pandas, male and female, spend the majority of their lives in trees. This affords protection from ground-based predators while giving the animals easy access to the various leaves and plant products comprising the bulk of the red panda's diet. Female red pandas, however, exhibit nest building behavior absent in males. When pregnant, female red pandas choose excluded spots such as bamboo thickets, tree hollows, crevices and more with which to line with moss, leaves, branches and other plant material in anticipation of pregnancy and cub rearing. Female pandas reared in captivity exhibit the same nest building behavior as those in the wild.
Feeding Habits
Pregnant female red pandas consume a wider array of foods than do males of the species . Males and females eat approximately 30 percent of their body weight daily; a female red panda eats as many as 200,000 bamboo leaves in a single day. Red pandas also consume insects, grubs, lichen, fruit, acorn, roots and grass. When pregnant, female pandas exhibit more predatory feeding behaviors than male pandas; pregnant females hunt and consume bird, lizards and rodents.
Scent Marking
Male and female red pandas use a variety of methods to mark their territory and communicate with other red pandas. Because red pandas exhibit solitary behavior, the animals rarely interact face to face other than mating season. Scent marking techniques used by both species include urination, defecation and glad secretion. Male pandas possess small pores on the pads of their feet that leave a scent trail. These pores are notably absent on female red pandas. Markings alert females to the presence of male red pandas during the mating season.
Home Range
The area in which a red panda lives comprises its home range. Home ranges cover all the places through which pandas travel to feed and mate. Female red pandas maintain solitary home ranges; they do not consciously move into the range of other red pandas. Male home ranges, however, overlap with the ranges of multiple females. Red pandas exhibit promiscuous breeding habits, meaning males compete for female attention and a single male may father offspring with multiple females in a single season. By overlapping his territory with the territory of several females, the male panda increases his chances of successfully mating in the face of competition.