Long-chain fatty acids in the anal gland of the red panda, Ailurus fulgens

Abstract

1. Subjects and sourceThe red panda (Ailurus fulgen) is reddish brown, long-tailed mammal, found inthe mountain forests of the Himalayas and adjacent areas of eastern Asia, whichsubsists mainly on bamboo (Choudhury, 2001). This species as with most Carnivora,possesses paired anal glands used by both sexes to scent-mark. Red pandas emit amusky odor from these glands when excited (Nowak, 1991), and according to Rob-erts and Gittleman (1984) secretions from these anal glands, in addition to urine andfeces, are used to mark territories.2. Previous workThere are no previous reports on the composition of the anal gland secretions ofA. fulgen (family Ailuridae). This secretion has been analysed for other members ofthe Musteloidea, including the families Mephitidae (Wood, 1990; Wood et al., 1991;Wood et al., 1993; Wood et al., 2002), Procyonidae (Schildknecht and Ubl, 1985),and Mustelidae (Crump, 1980a; 1980b; Crump and Moors, 1985; Davies et al., 1988;