The Giant Tree Escape

Ping the Red Panda

Ping was a red panda and lived at the zoo.

Red pandas aren’t really pandas. They’re more closely related to raccoons. The only thing they have in common is that, like koalas, they love eating bamboo.

Red panda vs regular panda

Ping’s tail was fuzzy and striped. He was looking up at the top of the bamboo tree in his habitat, where there was a particularly crisp bamboo shoot.

Ping wanted the tallest bamboo shoot

Ping’s whiskers twitched. He didn’t want the ordinary, soggy bamboo in the feeder. He wanted the crispiest, sweetest crunch he could get.

Ping, like most red pandas, loved climbing bamboo trees; he was built for it.

Red panda anatomy

He grabbed the tree trunk and started going up. He ran along an arched beam, hopping between the covering brackets with ease.