Red Panda Day!

The red panda is dwarfed by the black-and-white giant that shares its name. These pandas typically grow to the size of a house cat, though their big, bushy tails add an additional 18 inches. Red pandas live in the mountains of Nepal and northern Myanmar (Burma), as well as in central China. These shy and solitary species spend most of their times in trees and often sleep aloft. Red pandas have a taste of bamboo but unlike their larger relatives they eat fruits, acorns and eggs too. These species have been classified as a relative of the giant panda, and also of the raccoon, with which it shares a ringed tail. Currently, red pandas are considered members of their own unique family—the Ailuridae.

As adorable this species is, they are at risk of extinction. With the expanding human civilization, they too have become a victim of deforestation. Thus, with the aim of raising awareness about Red Panda, the third Saturday of the month September is celebrated as Red Panda Day.

Reason For Crisis

Red Panda have been listed as “ENDANGERED” in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and under Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. It is believed that their population has decreased by 50% over the last 18 years. And this will continue if major steps are not taken to conserve them.

Rapid human population growth in the Eastern Himalayas is causing deforestation and thus the degradation and fragmentation of red panda habitat. The forests are being cleared due to logging operations as well as agricultural projects in which the forests are converted into farmland to grow crops.

Domestic dogs and various diseases serve as a threat to the Red Panda’s impermanence. Frequent droughts, snowfall and floods, due to climate change is resulting in the shifting of vegetarian zones of Himalayas.

Despite knowing the Red Pandas being endangered, poaching of these animals continues. The poachers make money out of the bright reddish fur and striped tail of these animals. In Nepal, the red panda is a protected species, but their numbers are dwindling as poaching and illegal trade of red pandas and their parts is on the rise. Traditional medicines made with red panda body parts are illegal to buy and sell, but a black-market trade still exists for these products.

Red Pandas often fall as victim for traps meant for other animals such as wolves or bears. Due to their small size, red pandas who get caught in such traps are usually critically injured, and cannot survive.

Red Pandas are adorable and appealing animals. People are intrigued by them BUT they need to understand that they are not domestic animals unlike dogs and cat. They cannot be kept as pets. Unlike domesticated animals, they cannot be properly trained and require a highly specialized diet. Most pet red pandas die due to a lack of proper care. Since all pet red pandas are illegally stolen from the wild, the illegal pet trade has had a devastating effect on red pandas' wild population.

Conservation

The red panda survival is crucial for the eastern and north-eastern Himalayan subalpine conifer forests and the eastern Himalayan broadleaf forests. But people’s awareness of threats to red pandas.

Part of the difficulty in conserving red pandas relates to their unique habitat. These animals require a specific set of circumstances to optimize survival, including proximity to water sources, appropriate forest cover and altitude, and sufficient bamboo. As human encroachment continues to grow, these ideal habitats become increasingly more difficult to find. Bamboo grows unreliably in degraded habitats, which adds additional stress to the situation.

Red pandas have bred with some reliability in zoos throughout North America, Europe and Asia. As they decline in the wild, growing and maintaining self-sustaining populations in zoos is a high priority as a hedge against extinction and to learn more about species biology. There are now worldwide efforts to protect the red panda, according to the San Diego Zoo. In China, there are 35 protected areas; in India, there are 20. There are eight in Nepal and five in Bhutan.

Credits: BBC News

The International Union for Conservation of Nature has prioritized four major categories of action for conserving red pandas:

• Protectino against habitat loss
• Reduce habitat degradation
• Reduce deaths of red pandas (through poaching and removing man-made threats)
• Improve awareness

Laws are being passed every year to make forest conservation a priority. We humans are the reason behind their decline, so if we humans join hands, we can save them too.

This Red Panda Day, let’s raise awareness and encourage people to know more about these lovable species and help save the biome in which they live.