The Red Pandas of Central Park Zoo

The Red Panda is one of my most favourite animals right now.. they are so damn adorable! I want one as a pet that I can cuddle.. they are almost as lazy as their monochromatic cousins but not quite and are therefore not as badly endangered. That's right, the Panda is endangered for two reasons.. 1. the ever shrinking size of their native environment (bamboo forests in china) and 2. they are too lazy to bother having sex. I mean.. what a nightmare! But there it is, they are not keen on sex .. its just too much work. I just cannot comprehend.. anyway I digress...

Every zoo I have been to in the last few years has had red pandas. But this is actually the first time I have been to a zoo where the red pandas were actually in a position to be photographed.. you see they are somewhat nocturnal.. they are active very early in the morning and very late in the afternoon.. essentially around dusk and dawn.. because that is when their food is active. That means that the rest of the day they pretty much spend sleeping, so when you visit their enclosures and they have decided to sleep somewhere you can't see them or get a good picture of them, well then you are screwed.

So I felt very lucky and excited that this little fella was up and about .. as it turned out he was just shifting position and went back to sleep. But I got the shot!