The
red panda is what
Webster 1913 means by the word
panda, but he's the only one. The red panda (
Ailurus fulgens), also called the lesser panda, looks nothing like the
giant panda; it's fairly
small, reddish, and looks like a cross between a
raccoon and a
fox to me.
The red panda has a wider range than its giant relative, throughout the mountains of China, Nepal, Bhutan, India. Laos and Burma. It comes out at dawn and dusk to eat mostly bamboo but also other plant matter and occasionally small insects, birds or mice. ("Panda" originally meant "bamboo-eater," and the diet is the most obvious similarity between the two pandas.) Like the giant panda, the red panda has an extended wrist bone which acts like a thumb. The adults are usually solitary.
The red panda is vulnerable to habitat destruction, but not nearly so endangered as the giant panda, and also the red panda breeds well in captivity.
Like the giant panda, a debate goes on as to whether this panda is most closely related to raccoons, bears, or what.