Red Panda

Red Pandas don't look real. They look like muppets. Just watch this.

Too cute. So cute in fact that it won "World's Cutest Animal" in a contest held by the Houston Zoo. Just look at this entire photo gallery. Seriously.

Red Pandas were long though to be members of both the bear and raccoon families, but they are in fact the solo member of their very own taxonomic family, Ailuridae. This family in turn is a part of the super family Musteloidea, home to skunks, weasels, raccoons and otters, though nucleotide testing has shown that they are not especially close with any of those guys. Like the Tuatara, Red Pandas are considered by some to be living fossils. Their nearest fossil ancestors existed 3-4 million years ago and nothing else that is especially genetically similar to them still exists. It has been proposed that the red panda has existed for so long due to its remote habitat and solitary lifestyle. Members of the extinct Parailurus genus, one of the aforementioned fossil relatives, had a much larger habitat range, found in Europe, Asia, and North America.

Sleeping at the Milwaukee County Zoo

Red Pandas, like Giant Pandas, live off of a diet comprised mostly of bamboo, but they also consume fruits, mushrooms, bird eggs, small mammals and insects as well. Also like the Giant Panda, they are unable to digest cellulose, and as a result they must eat large quantities in order to meet their nutritional needs. Also like the Giant Panda, Red Pandas are solitary animals and usually only come together to breed. Interestingly, the Red Panda was the first panda documented by science, and is the origin of the word "panda" itself. Giant Pandas were discovered nearly 50 years later.

Red Pandas are a threatened species, with their numbers dwindling due to human encroachment, hunting, and deforestation. Conservations efforts have been made in many of their natural countries, and unlike those poor Giant Pandas, they seem to do very well breeding in captivity. And if you'd like to help out these absurdly cute little muppets, you can even "adopt" one!