Red pandas have shot to viral fame for their adorable looks, but there’s a lot more to these elusive animals than their kitten-like faces and striking reddish-brown coats. 

Red pandas, which grow to about the size of a house cat, are impressive acrobats that climb and swing on trees in their Asian forest homes, and they once sparked fierce debate about their relationship to giant pandas. Taxonomists previously assigned them to both the raccoon family and the bear family, but DNA research later revealed that they belong to their own unique family (Ailuridae) and genus (Ailurus).

While originally thought to be two subspecies—the Himalayan red panda and the Chinese red panda—growing evidence suggests they may be two distinct