I was lucky this week.  I attended the in-theatre premier of Pixar’s Turning Red – an animated movie that takes place here in Toronto. It’s a wonderful story about a young Chinese-Canadian girl with an embarrassing problem. She turns into a large Red Panda when she becomes upset. While we were waiting for the movie to start, my friend asked “are there any Red Panda stamps?”  My answer was “OF COURSE!”.  And then I did a quick check to make sure. Phew, yes, 97 Red Panda stamps are available. Giant Pandas rate a whopping 600+ stamps, creating a significant panda imbalance in my opinion. 

Still, 97 is nothing to sneer at. Most of the stamps are photographs, and honestly, it’s hard to go wrong with such a floofy animal. So I decided to showcase Taiwanese artist 柯鴻圖 Hung-tu Ko’s beautiful work instead of photographs.  柯鴻圖 Hung-tu Ko began working for Taiwan’s Chung­hwa Post in 1997 and has illustrated some of Taiwan’s most striking nature stamps. His philosophy on stamp design is simple,  “Stamps are like the country’s calling cards, so they have to express Taiwan’s beauty.”  This is an idea I often promote here on the site and fell in love with his thinking.  I will be doing more articles on 柯鴻圖 Hung-tu Ko in the near future so, keep an eye open for it. 

Taiwan’s 2007 Cute Animal Series — Lesser Panda |  特501 可愛動物郵票—小貓熊  is made up of 4 single stamps and one stamp on a souvenir sheet. I know there is a First Day Cover out there, but couldn’t find a scan I could use. Lesser panda is another name for our lovely floof machine.  When you translate 小貓熊 (with Google Translate), it pops up as “little bear” or “kitten bear”, which are perfect names for Red Pandas. But, as usual, I digress.

To the Red Panda stamps! 

There are fewer than 10,000 Red Pandas left. Their numbers have been devastated from human encroachment on their territory and climate change. 

Almost 50% of the red panda’s habitat is in the Eastern Himalayas. The loss of nesting trees and bamboo is causing a decline in red panda populations across much of their range because their forest home is being cleared. Red Panda | Species | WWF (worldwildlife.org)

Red Panda foraging in a tree

Red Pandas are omnivorous, that means they eat  wide variety of foods including bamboo, various grasses, fruits, insects and birds when they catch them. 

NAP TIME!

Our little friends are nocturnal, preferring early morning or dusk to go about their activities. This helps them avoid the heat of the day. They will climb up into trees where it’s safe and sleep on branches, shaded from the sun. And yes, they sleep on their stomachs. 

Rooting around looking for some fun

Red Pandas are known for their gentle, playful nature.  BUT … they are wild animals. That means they aren’t pets nor are they suitable as a pet. They live in temperate forests in  the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China at altitudes of 7,000 to 12,000 feet. 

Time for a quick scratch

“Fate has given me this skill, so I have to live up to it!” Taiwanese artist 柯鴻圖 Hung-tu Ko

柯鴻圖 Hung-tu Ko’s love of nature comes through in this series, as it does in all his artwork. If you’d like to learn a bit more about him, check out this article  –  Ko Hung-tu: Painting Life – New Southbound Policy Portal (mofa.gov.tw). It is available in a number of languages, including English.  

Did you know you can adopt a Red Panda?

No, not take one home – they belong in the wild. You can virtual adopt one through the WWF, an organisation working hard to protect Red Panda’s and their territory. Check out their page – Adopt a Red Panda | Symbolic Adoptions from WWF (worldwildlife.org). Your money will help preserve the Red Panda’s dwindling numbers. You can also adopt one for someone in your life who loves the Red Panda. Think about it. Money well spent. 

If you’d like to see more Red Pandas, drop a comment below and I’ll put the suggestion on my “to do list”.  I could even do a full catalogue listing of all the Red Panda stamps. That might be fun. As well, if you’d like to see more from 柯鴻圖 Hung-tu Ko, leave a comment. 

Apologies if I mistranslate anything. If you spot an error, let me know. It’s important to get names correct. I rely on both Google Translate and my readers to get things right. 

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