NATURE WATCH

NATURE WATCH:

THE Red Panda or Ailurus fulgens is a slightly large domestic cat-like animal, some 40-60 cm long, with an additional 46-centimetre bushy tail and it weighs weigh between three and six kilograms. The state animal of Sikkim, it is also the mascot of the International Tea Festival in Darjeeling. Its skin is used to make hats and the tail is used to make a duster. Furthermore, the skin of the Red Panda may still be worn by a bridegroom in a local Chinese wedding.

There is no sexual dimorphism in colour or size between males and females but it remains among the most beautiful animals around. The lustrous coat is a rich reddish brown on the back and black on the lower parts and legs. The coat provides effective camouflage amongst the trees where the branches are often swathed in reddish-brown moss. The face is rounded and predominantly white, with reddish-brown “tear marks” running from the corner of each eye to the mouth, similar to that of a raccoon, but each individual has distinctive markings. Its roundish head has medium-sized upright ears, a black nose, and very dark eyes. The long bushy tail is marked with 12 alternating red and buff rings that provide balance and excellent camouflage against a habitat of moss and lichen-covered trees. The soles of the feet are covered with thick white fur that provides warmth, serving as thermal insulation on snow-covered or icy surfaces. Red Pandas possess strong, curved and sharp semi-retractile claws for grasping narrow tree branches, leaves and fruit, much like the Giant Pandas with which they share their names.

Much like the Giant Panda, their habitat consists of rainy, high-altitude forest but with a wider range. They are found in a temperate climate, under thick bamboo cover at an elevation of 2,200-4,800 feet above sea level, with an optimal “wellbeing” temperature between 17°-25° Celsius and an average rainfall of 350 cm, hence endemic to the Himalayas in Bhutan, central China, India, Laos, Nepal and northern Myanmar.
According to Sunita Pradhan of the zoology department, Darjeeling Government College, in India the Red Panda is found in the eastern Himalayas that includes Darjeeling, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. Currently, two extant subspecies of the Red Panda exist — the smaller Western Red Panda (Ailurus fulgens fulgens) that lives in Nepal, north-eastern India (Bengal, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh), Bhutan and part of China; and the somewhat larger Styan’s Red Panda (Ailurus fulgens styani) that is found only in China (in the Hengduan mountains in Sichuan and the east Nujiang river of Yunnan Province) and northern Myanmar. The Western Red Panda has lighter pelage, especially on the face, while the Styan’s Red Panda has more dramatic facial markings. They are arboreal, very skillful and acrobatic animals and are crepuscular (most active at dawn and dusk), so they sleep during the hot noontime in the shady crowns of treetops, increase their activity only in the late afternoon and/or early evening hours. They use their raccoon-like ringed tails as wraparound blankets in the chilly mountain heights.

Red Pandas are generally solitary, but there are a couple of exceptions to the rule. First, the young grow relatively slowly, so they develop an extended associations with their mothers that last for over a year. Second, Red Pandas have short relationships during the annual breeding season. In terms of their ranging patterns, they behave much like larger carnivores, tending to have overlapping home ranges in which individuals rarely interact with each other. This may seem odd, since Red Pandas mostly eat bamboo. The home ranges of the females often measure about one square mile, while the males can live in areas twice that size. Male home ranges frequently overlap with at least one female home range and sometimes expand during the breeding season.

Because Red Pandas constantly need to conserve energy, they only cover 650 to 1,000 feet of their home ranges per day and about 25 per cent of their home ranges per month. They mark their territories and ranges in several ways. These include urine, secretions from the anal glands and scents from glands on the pads of their feet. Red Pandas often communicate using body language such as head-bobbing and tail-arching and a variety of noises such as a threatening “huff-quack” and a warning whistle.

They are mostly herbivorous mammals, specialised as bamboo-feeders; they cannot digest cellulose as their guts are not specialised to handle plant matter like that of cows, horses and other herbivorous mammals. They normally have very strong teeth and extra fermentation chambers in their guts, so they consume fresh leaves and fresh shoots that are easily digestible and pass through their digestive tract quite quickly. They eat berries, fruit, mushrooms, roots, acorns, lichen, grass and are known to supplement their with the occasional young birds, fish, eggs, small rodents and insects when the weather is warm enough. In captivity they will readily eat meat.

The Red Panda’s dietary specialisation has a profound impact on the animal’s daily life. To cope with the lack of food during the winter months, they have evolved several ways of meeting energy demands. For instance, they can spend as much as 13 hours a day looking for and eating bamboo. They also have a very low metabolic rate (almost as low as the sloth) and can slow their metabolism even further in colder temperatures. Finally, their thick fur covers the entire body, allowing them to conserve body heat. The Red Panda’s preference for bamboo is apparently an ancient adaptation, as indicated by fossils of similar animals that have been found in Eastern Europe and North America. These specimens date back to the Miocene (25 to five million years ago) and Pliocene (five to two million years ago) periods, leading scientists to believe that bamboo and Red Panda-like animals have historically been found in many areas of the planet. It is likely that the range of the bamboo has increased and decreased with changes in global temperature and moisture, and fortunately for the Red Panda, bamboo still thrives in many parts of southern Asia.

Females give birth only once in a year, in the spring and summer, to one to four young. Several days before parturition, the female begins to carry nest materials (sticks, grass, leaves) to a suitable site. In the wild, a nest may be a hollow tree or a rock crevice. In captivity, a box, hollow logs, or other artificial dens can serve as a nest. The young remain in their nests for about 90 days, during which time their mothers care for them. Males take little or no interest in their offspring.

According to Dr Miles Roberts, Red Pandas have a long gestation period (approximately 135 days) for an animal that weighs only 11 pounds at maturity. Despite the amount of food they eat, they grow quite slowly, reaching adult size after 12 months. The young become sexually mature at 18 months. Their average lifespan is eight to 10 years but can reach a maximum of 15 years. As a result of these characteristics, Red Pandas have a slow rate of reproduction and a great deal of difficulty recovering from population declines.

Red Pandas have been pivotal in research on the taxonomy of the families Ursidae and Procyonidae with which they share many characters. There is an estimated population of fewer than 2,500 mature individuals. Red Pandas are declining over much of their range is due to habitat loss and fragmentation. Forests are being cleared for timber extraction, agricultural development and livestock grazing even within national parks and wildlife reserves. This results in the loss of nesting trees and the bamboo on which the species feeds. In the wild, Snow Leopards are the main natural predator of adult Red Pandaa. This animal is classified as Endangered (EN C2a) on the IUCN Red List 2004. In China, the species is thought to have undergone a decline of around 40 per cent over the last 50 years as they are hunted for their pelts which is used to make traditional hats and clothing. In Yunnan Province, a fur hat complete with the Panda’s long, luxurious tail is still desired by newlyweds, as it traditionally symbolises a happy marriage.

According to an article published in the journal Biological Conservation, ML Hunter and PB Yonzon documented that the species was equally threatened in Nepal. The 660-square mile Langtang National Park is believed to be Nepal’s largest bastion for Red Pandas, but 30,000 people live nearby and depend on its resources as they lack viable economic alternatives. These people strip and cut trees for building materials, forage for livestock, and fuel for cooking, tourism, and cheese production. Not only do these activities eliminate food, shelter and nesting for Red Pandas and other wildlife, but hunting and the depredations of feral dogs also take a considerable toll on the population.

Conservation is very important because it is the only species of its kind in the world and also, according to conservation biologists, Red Pandas are an indicator of the overall health of their home in the Eastern Himalayan Broadleaf Forest, which is the central link in the Himalayan Hotspot. Through public awareness, we can enable protection of the Red Panda and create an empowering future for one of the most important regions of our planet, South Asia. The species is fully protected and is listed on Appendix I of Cites. More than 80 zoological gardens currently have Red Pandas and almost all of them participate in a management programme to ensure the survival of a viable zoo population.

In North America, the Red Panda Species Survival Programme provides guidance on research strategies and long-term management of the species in captivity. Other management programmes have been created in Japan, Europe, Australia and China. In China, it occurs in many reserves established to protect the Giant Panda and in several protected areas in Nepal and India. It is not known to occur in any protected areas in Bhutan or Myanmar. In India, in due course of time, the Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park, Darjeeling, a world renowned breeding centre for both Red Pandas and Snow Leopards which also specialises in animals that are native to the Himalayas, has, under project Red Panda launched in 1986, successfully carried out an ex-situ conservation programme by breeding this species in captivity and releasing them in the wild. Interestingly, one of the two individuals that were radio-collared and released in the Singhalila National Park, has mated in the wild and given birth.

According to the WWF website, Sikkim is also likely to hold about 20 per cent of the potential Red Panda habitat in India. The entire landscape, including the Khangchendzonga Biosphere Reserve, is facing various threats, but there is no scientifically documented information that actually identifies the threats as well as shows levels of damage each one of these is causing or the potential of the damage that is waiting to happen. In Sikkim, the animal is reported to be found in six protected areas but its status in the wild is thought to be steadily declining. A 1,000-fold increase in tourists between 1980 and 1995 and their subsequent requirement for firewood have accelerated this habitat loss. In addition to this, construction of roads, over-grazing, etc, have also had their toll on Sikkim’s Red Panda habitats. Therefore, conservation needs for this species must be determined and addressed.

The writer is a post-graduate student of Zoology in North Bengal University.