Ailurus fulgens F. G. Cuvier, 1825

W. Christopher Wozencraft, 1993, Order Carnivora, Mammal Species of the World (2 nd Edition), Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, pp. 279-348 : 337

Ailurus fulgens F. G. Cuvier, 1825 . In E. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire and F. G. Cuvier, Hist. Nat. Mammifères, pt. 3, 5(50), "Panda" 3 pp.

TYPE LOCALITY: "Indes orientales."

DISTRIBUTION: Yunnan and Szechwan ( China), N Burma, Sikkim ( India), Nepal.

STATUS: CITES - Appendix II; IUCN - Insufficiently known.

SYNONYMS: ochraceus Hodgson, 1847 ; refulgens Milne-Edwards, 1868; styani Thomas, 1902.

COMMENTS: Although this species is sometimes included in the Procyonidae because of its ringed tail, and superficial resemblance of teeth and rounded skull to Procyon , this species does not have the shared derived morphological characters that would place it there ( Decker and Wozencraft, 1991). See comments under the genus. Nearly all of the derived features that it shares with Ailuropoda (and not with other bears) relate directly to feeding on bamboo (Davis, 1964; Gregory, 1936). Reviewed by Roberts and Gittleman (1984, Mammalian Species, 222).