Eggs on the Menu of Red Pandas

•Posted inFeatured, Science, Wildlife & Conservation, Zoos

Red Pandas are carnivores, but feed mainly on bamboo. Interestingly, eggs are also on their menu.

Side view of a red panda, bamboo leaves can be seen in the background. The mouth is slightly open, it is looking into the distance

In the 19th century, the naturalist Brian Houghton Hodgson described that Red Pandas eat eggs as their only animal food.1 It is now known that they occasionally eat small mammals and birds.

Egg thieves

In their natural habitat, Red Pandas sometimes raid birds’ nests to get at eggs. The documentary “Der Kleine Panda – Verborgen im Himalaya” by Axel Gebauer shows this behavior.

The video is only available in German, but the footage speaks for itself.

A historical example of feeding eggs to Red Pandas in zoos dates back to the 19th century. Abraham Bartlett, Superintendent of London Zoo, fed a Red Panda a mixture of sweetened beef tea and porridge with eggs to improve its health.2

One egg a day?

In 2014, the Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park in Darjeeling, India, issued a dietary recommendation. This zoo specializes in breeding and releasing Red Pandas into the wild. Eggs are an important part of the diet: “One piece of egg, one piece of banana, 200 g of apple, 20 ml of honey, 200 ml of milk, 4 kg of fresh bamboo and 1000 ml of water should be provided to animal every day”.3

A recent survey of 106 European zoos highlights that Red Pandas are still being fed eggs today: 38% of the surveyed institutions include eggs in their diet.4

References:

  1. Red Panda (Second Edition) – Biology and Conservation of the First Panda
    2022, Pages xix-xxix – https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-823753-3.00003-X ↩︎
  2. Red Panda (Second Edition) – Biology and Conservation of the First Panda
    2022, Pages xix-xxix – https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-823753-3.00003-X ↩︎
  3. Jha AK. Working Manual Red Panda Conservation Breeding Programme of the Central Zoo Authority; Ministry of Environment & Forests by the Government of India Darjeeling, West Bengal: Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park; 2014, 35 – https://cza.nic.in/uploads/documents/publications/english/2014.pdf ↩︎
  4. Samet, L., Weerman, J., & Clauss, M. (2025). Current practices in dietary management and disease incidence in red pandas Ailurus fulgens across European zoos. Journal of Zoo and Aquarium Research, 13(1), 37–44. https://doi.org/10.19227/jzar.v13i1.842 ↩︎