The taxonomic family that includes the red panda, a small carnivorous mammal native to the Himalayas and southeastern Asia.
From Greek 'ailouros' (cat) plus Latin '-idae' (family ending), literally 'the cat family.' The red panda was long thought to be a raccoon until genetic studies reclassified it.
The red panda was named 'panda' first, then the giant panda was discovered and kind of stole the name—so now we call them 'red pandas' to distinguish them, one of biology's accidental naming mishaps!
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