Ailurus fulgens

ENDANGERED

Singalila National Park, Tumling, West Bengal

The endangered and reclusive Red Panda has been a primary bucket list item for me for an excruciatingly long time. But with the help of Ismail Shariff - a dear friend and like minded soul - it finally boiled down to this, our maiden trip to these pristine forests - a dream come true. All my - I should say our - expectations were blown away with the monumental support of the team at Firefox Expeditions India led by Sourav Mondal and Amardeep Thami.

The approach, expertise and heartwarming attitude of the talented and multi-faceted team of trackers at Firefox Expeditions India was an experience in it self. Led by Sourav and Amardeep, they are well versed with the nuances of the animal and intimately aware of the risks and dangers it faces. It is evident that they care deeply for these forests and the wildlife it harbours and take all measures necessary to keep it safe and clean. For them the animal comes first! The whole team have been doing this for a number of years now and the fruits of their labours are evident as you breathlessly trek up and down the rather steep mountains with them.

The major issue at the Singalila National Park is trash collection on the well traversed trekking routes and ensuring minimal damage of flora by trekkers, as flora at such high altitudes tend to grow really slowly. Yak and cattle grazing from the neighbouring villages can also be a problem. Forest fires are also a threat to the park, especially in spring when the accumulated debris from winter can be a hazard. The last forest fire to sweep through the park was on 6 March 2006.

Given the issues with trash you see the Firefox team here in their successful first phase of Singalila Cleaning program. They have tried to clean all the plastic trash from the hamlet of Manebhanjyang to Tumling. The next phase will be Tumling to Kalapokhari in December or January. They hope to make a plastic free Singalila National Park for the Red Pandas and other wildlife who have made their home here. They have the support of the Singalila National Park Forest Department and the gracious people of Tumling in this endeavour. It is also our responsibility as tourists, trekkers, wildlife/ nature lovers and photographers to help them keep it plastic free by reducing our own use of single use plastics.

The following photos & video are but a tiny glimpse into the experience I had with this spectacular animal in its natural habitat over the few days we were there. I have used a combination of cameras and lenses to get the various perspectives seen here and they can all be found here. Some of these are handheld because the terrain didn’t permit or there just wasn’t enough time and some are from the tripod.

Primary kit: Canon 1Dx Mark ii wearing the EF 600mm f/4L IS III with both extenders - Canon Extender EF 1.4x III & Canon Extender EF 2x III - on and off depending on the framing. I also had the Canon Drop-In Circular Polarising Filter PL-C 52 (WIII) on the 600 all through.

Secondary kit: Canon 7D Mark ii wearing the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II.

Back-up kit: Canon 1D iii wearing the EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS III for those habitat photos.

We had the good fortune to spot multiple pandas over the few days we spent at the Singalila National Park at various times of the day with different conditions prevailing. Sometimes the sun obliged, sometimes it went overboard, sometimes it was fog and sometimes there was just too much foliage but all in all it was an amazing time and we were blessed with some intimate moments with the pandas.

Fun Fact: Red Pandas red and black color camouflages them from their predators. The red on their backs is exactly the same color as moss found on the trees where they live. The black on their stomach makes it difficult to see them from below.

Featured as the cover feature for the February 2023 issue of Explore Wild India Magazine. E-book available for download on the button below.

Singalila National Park

The jungles to the north and east of India are treasure houses to some of the most precious and strange flora and fauna. One such treasure in the east is Singalila National Park in West Bengal. Established in 1986, the park is among the few remaining habitats of the endangered and elusive Red Panda. Located on the Singalila Ridge at an altitude of more than 7000 feet above sea level, in the Darjeeling district of West Bengal, it is a well known trekking route to Sandakphu - the 3636 m; 11,930 ft mountain peak on the border between India and Nepal. It is the highest point of the Singalila Ridge and the state of West Bengal, India. Four of the five highest peaks in the world, Everest, Kangchenjunga, Lhotse and Makalu can be seen from its summit. View them in my Wildscapes Gallery.

The forest of Singalila was bought by the British government from the King of Sikkim. Some years after the independence, in 1992, the forest was converted into National park. The area was earlier used as a hiking trail. And it was used by the first mountaineering team that was heading for Mount Kanchenjunga. Incandescent views of the Kanchenjunga Massif adorn the clear blue skies above the Singalila National Park and from various points within the park one can get spectacular views of the mountains spanning from Nepal to Bhutan. River Rammam and River Sirikhola flow through the park.

The park has no significant history of human settlement. However, small settlements have grown up along the trekking route to Sandakphu and Phalut - the 3,600 metres (11,800 ft) second highest peak of West Bengal. There is a reasonably large village at Kala Pokhri, around the lake of the same name. The Singalila Ridge was used as an approach route by the first documented mountaineering team, led by Jules Jacot-Guillarmod and the famous occultist Aleister Crowley, which unsuccessfully attempted to climb Kanchenjunga in 1905.

Because of the park's range in altitude, it includes three separate biomes, ranging from subalpine to subtropical, and three corresponding ecoregions:

• The Eastern Himalayan subalpine conifer forests ecoregion, of the temperate coniferous forests biome

• The Eastern Himalayan broadleaf forests ecoregion, of the temperate broadleaf and mixed forests biome

• The Himalayan subtropical pine forests ecoregion, of the subtropical coniferous forest biome

The subtropical biome roughly exists in the altitude range of 1800 to 3000 m, and the temperate biome exists in the altitude range of 3000 m to 4500 m.

Thick bamboo, oak, magnolia and rhododendron forest between 2000 and 3600 m cover the Singalila Ridge. There are two seasons of wildflower bloom - one in spring (March and April) when the rhododendrons bloom, and another in the post-monsoon season (around October), when the lower forests bloom (Primula, Geranium, Saxifraga, Bistort, Senecio, Cotoneaster and numerous orchids). Sandakphu is known as the "mountain of poisonous plants" due to the large concentration of Himalayan cobra lilies (Arisaema) which grow there. This information on the plant life is based on a 2001 survey.

I wish to return again to this beautiful habitat in spring to observe and record the Red Panda among the rhododendrons.

Fun Fact: The markings on a red panda's face help them survive! The reddish 'tear tracks' extending from their eyes to the corner of their mouth may help keep the sun out of their eyes. The white on their face is "almost luminescent" and can guide a mother's lost cubs in the darkness! So they are not just cute faces.

Red Panda/ Lesser Panda/ Firefox/ Red Bear-Cat/ Himalayan Red Panda

The beautiful Red Panda (Ailurus fulgens) is a carnivore native to the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China. It is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List because the wild population is estimated at fewer than 10,000 mature individuals and continues to decline due to habitat loss and fragmentation, poaching and inbreeding depression. And despite its name, it is not closely related to the giant panda.

The red panda is slightly larger than a domestic cat albeit with a slightly longer body with a bear-like body and thick russet fur. The belly and limbs are black, and there are white markings on the side of the head and above its small eyes. It is arboreal and feeds mainly on bamboo, but also eats eggs, birds, and insects. It is a solitary animal, mainly active from dusk to dawn, and is largely sedentary during the day. It is also called the lesser panda, the red bear-cat, the red cat-bear, and the fire fox.

The red panda is the only living member of the genus Ailurus and the family Ailuridae. It has previously been placed in the raccoon and bear families, but the results of phylogenetic analysis provide strong support for its taxonomic classification in its own family, Ailuridae, which is part of the superfamily Musteloidea, along with the weasel, raccoon and skunk families. Traditionally it was thought to consist of two subspecies. However, results of genetic analysis indicate that there are most likely two distinct red panda species, the Chinese red panda and the Himalayan Red Panda, which genetically diverged 0.22 million years ago.

Red pandas are very skillful and acrobatic animals that predominantly stay in trees. Almost 50% of the red panda’s habitat is in the Eastern Himalayas. They use their long, bushy tails for balance and to cover themselves in winter, presumably for warmth. Primarily an herbivore, the name panda is said to come from the Nepali word ‘ponya,’ which means bamboo or plant eating animal. Their semi-retractable claws help them move easily from branch to branch.

Fun Fact: Red pandas are built for life in the trees. They have long, bushy tails that help them maintain balance and stay safe while traversing the canopy. Red pandas do not have paw pads and instead have fur covering the soles of their feet, which is believed to add extra insulation from the cold and help grip onto slippery, mossy branches. The soles of their feet also have scent glands to mark their territory. Their claws are sharp and can be pulled back like a cat.

Their ankles are extremely flexible, and the fibula and tibia are attached in such a way as to allow the fibula to rotate about its axis. This means that red pandas are one of the few animals on the planet that can climb straight down a tree, head-first.

Almost 50% of the red panda’s habitat is in the Eastern Himalayas. The loss of nesting trees and bamboo is causing a decline in red panda populations across much of their range because their forest home is being cleared.

Previously, two different subspecies were recognised:

• The Chinese Red Panda - those to the east of the Nujiang River (also known as the Salween River), with wider cheekbones and redder faces, were classified as the Chinese Red Panda.

• The Himalayan Red Panda - those to the west were the Himalayan red panda.

But this division into has long been debated. The Nujiang River was perhaps a convenient and seemingly obvious geographical feature on which to place a boundary, but pandas on either side didn’t show a clear difference. A new study published in the journal Science Advances by researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences places a firm marker in that debate. According to their work, the pandas do indeed fall into two clear genetic clusters, albeit with the likely boundary between the two actually being the Yalu Zangbu River, several hundred kilometres further west. The two clusters are distinct enough for researchers to conclude they can be classified genetically as two distinct species.

The DNA was also compared specifically the female-inherited mitochondria (the “batteries” of cells) and the Y chromosome carried by males. This showed that, as in giant pandas, it is the females that disperse throughout their range, not the males. This is different from most mammals in which it is the males that travel around and spread genetic diversity among different populations. As in the giant panda this may be due to competition for dens between females and because of male territoriality.

There is limited information on red panda population status but the overall assessment is of major declines due to the loss of nesting trees and bamboo in the Eastern Himalayas—the location of almost 50% of the red panda’s habitat— causing a decline in red panda populations across much of their range. Distinguishing the two species of Red Panda might allow different levels of vulnerability to be highlighted. Importantly, the Himalayan red panda has very low genetic diversity and threcarries a high level of potentially unhealthy mutations. In theory, this means scientists could carry out a genetic rescue by selectively breeding them with Chinese red pandas.

It was a beautiful experience to get so close to the gorgeous Red Panda as I was once again shooting with my primary gear - the Canon 1Dx Mark ii paired with the EF 600 mm f/4L IS III with both extenders - Canon Extender EF 1.4x III & Canon Extender EF 2x III - on and off depending on the framing. I also had the Canon Drop-In Circular Polarising Filter PL-C 52 (WIII) on the 600 all through. I also used the Canon 7D Mark ii wearing the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II and the Canon 1D iii wearing the EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS III intermittently for those habitat photos and wider angles.

Fun Fact: Like giant pandas, red pandas have a pseudo-thumb: an enlarged, modified wrist bone they use for grabbing bamboo stems and tree branches. It was once thought that it must be an adaptation to eating bamboo, but the red panda's more carnivorous ancestors had this feature as well. According to a 2006 study, what happened was "one of the most dramatic cases of convergence among vertebrates."

Convergent evolution is when two unrelated animals faced with similar circumstances evolve to look similar. In this case, the red panda's false thumb evolved to help it climb trees, and only later became adapted for the bamboo diet, while giant pandas evolved this virtually identical feature because of their bamboo diet. 

With that said I think it is time to move onto the gallery of this beautiful endangered Panda.

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Fun Fact: Red pandas often communicate when they feel provoked or threatened. They use body language  — such as head bobbing, tail arching and standing on their hind legs — and a variety of loud noises including the “huff-quack” and a warning whistle.

So if you ever see a standing panda you may want to keep your distance. The animal is likely feeling stressed and may resort to using their sharp claws or releasing a foul smell from their scent glands on the intruder. 

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