Red Panda

- Reddish-brown fur, white face with tear/crescent markings, and a bushy tail with alternating red and white rings

- Scientific Name: Ailurus fulgens

-Class: Mammalia

-Tend to play in trees

-They're about 2 feet long

-They use their tail to balance and for warmth in winter

-Herbivore

-Their diet consists of 90% bamboo

-Illegal to buy, sell, or kill Red Pandas

-More closely related to racoons than giant pandas

-Less than 10,000 left in the world

Species Habitat

Red pandas inhabit elevated, temperate forests filled with bamboo across the Himalayas and other high-altitude mountain regions. They range from northern Myanmar to the western provinces of Sichuan and Yunnan in China. Additionally, they can be found in suitable places within Nepal, India, and Tibet.

Niche

- Red pandas serve as prey for certain predators in their habitat, contributing to the predator-prey dynamics and maintaining the balance within the ecosystem.

-As a sensitive species to environmental changes and habitat degradation, red pandas can act as indicators of the overall health and status of their forest habitats.

-If removed, they could cause species that prey on them to decline and species they prey on to grow out of control.

Cause of decline

-Destruction of habitat has resulted in the decline of Red Pandas

-Red Pandas rely on nesting trees and bamboo and sine many of them have been destroyed, Red Panda numbers have declined

-Killed on accident from different animal traps

-Poached for their fur pelts

Why Care?

-Look at them..... They're ADORABLE!!!

-Living beings that deserve the same respect as humans

-Biodiversity loss as they're the last of their taxonomic family Ailuridae

-As mentioned above, it will disrupt their ecosystem/habitat (predator-prey cycle)

Conservation Efforts

World Wild Life is working with Yak herders and the community to reduce the impact humans have on Red Pandas and their habitat. This includes fining jailing people for participating in the active demise of Red Pandas by selling, buying, or killing them. Some of the community efforts include:

- Producing Yak dung briquettes to offer an alternative income source, substituting the need to cut down red panda habitat for wood and serving as a fuel source.

-Developing tourism packages presents an alternative means of income generation by attracting tourists to the region.

Geographers, Geospatial Tools, and Geography's Role in Conservation

- Geography helps in understanding the human footprint on red panda habitats by comparing before and after, and also allows for discussions involving suitability of an environment for an endangered species

- The Geospatial Tool, GIS, was used at Langtang National Park in Nepal to better understand the Red Pandas potential to go extinct, as well as learn their habitat and population.

- Geographers research contributes to creating conservation plans that consider the landscape's geographical features and human-wildlife interactions