Life Cycle

Red pandas have a long gestation period (roughly 135 days) for an animal that weighs only 11 pounds at maturity.  They also have small litters, producing about two cubs on average.

Despite the amount of food that red pandas eat, they grow quite slowly, reaching adult size after 12 months.  The young become sexually mature at 18 months.

As a result of these characteristics, red pandas have a slow rate of reproduction and have a great deal of difficulty recovering from population declines.

Source: Red Panda: The Fire Cat by Miles Roberts (ZooGoer 21(2), 1992). Photo: National Geographic