Red Panda - Taxonomic History

Taxonomic History

The first known written record of the red panda occurs in a 13th-century Chinese scroll depicting a hunting scene between hunters and the red panda.

Major General Thomas Hardwicke’s 1821 presentation of an article titled "Description of a new Genus of the Class Mammalia, from the Himalaya Chain of Hills Between Nepaul and the Snowy Mountains" at the Linnean Society in London is usually regarded as the moment the red panda became a bona fide species in Western science. Hardwicke proposed the name "wha" and explained: "It is frequently discovered by its loud cry or call, resembling the word ‘Wha’, often repeating the same : hence is derived one of the local names by which it is known. It is also called Chitwa." Hardwicke's paper was not published until 1827, by which time Frédéric Cuvier had published his description and a figure. Hardwicke's originally proposed taxonomic name was removed from the 1827 publication of his paper with his permission, and naming credit is now given to Cuvier.

Frédéric Cuvier had received the specimen he described from his brother's stepson, Alfred Duvaucel, who had sent it "from the mountains north of India". He was the first to use both the binomial Ailurus fulgens and the vernacular name "panda" in reference to the species in his description published in 1825 in Histoire Naturelle des Mammifères. Ailurus is adopted from the ancient Greek word αἴλουρος (ailouros), meaning "cat". The specific epithet fulgens is Latin for "shining, bright". Panda is the French name for the Roman goddess of peace and travelers, who was called upon before starting a difficult journey. Whether this is the origin of the French vernacular name panda remains uncertain. In later publications, the name is claimed to be adopted from a Himalayan language.

In 1847, Hodgson described a red panda under the name Ailurus ochraceus, of which Pocock concluded it represents the same type as Ailurus fulgens, since the description of the two agree very closely. He subordinated both types to the Himalayan red panda subspecies Ailurus fulgens fulgens.