Maria Calcaterra, age 10, of Staten Island, N.Y., for her question:

IS THE PANDA A MEMBER OF THE BEAR FAMILY?

The panda looks a lot like a bear and also has some comical bearish ways. But he is definitely not related to the bear family. In North America, his closest relative is our clever raccoon, who wears a black mask and a fluffy' striped tail. In Central and South America, there are several other members of the raccoon panda family.

One of these is the solemn coati, another is the charming kinkajou and a third is a so called ring tailed cat. All these cousins are small compared with the big, black and white panda from Tibet. However, in his Himalaya homeland lives the lesser panda. This ball of black and white fluff is about the same size as the big panda's raccoon type cousins. And none of these animals is related to the bear family.