Please Help Red Pandas

Please help save red pandas from extinction.

These incredibly unique creatures are the last of their kind, and they are on the brink of being lost forever.

Despite sharing their name, and an appetite for bamboo, with the popular giant panda, the two are in fact very distant relatives. Red pandas are the last living members of their family, Ailuridae, making them truly one of a kind. But this family could soon be gone for good.

Officially recognised as endangered on the IUCN Red List, their numbers have dropped by a staggering 50% since 1997. Today, less than 10,000 remain.

And these survivors are running out of time.

Illegal logging is tearing down the trees they call home, decimating the bamboo they rely on for 95% of their diet, and driving the red panda into extinction. Those that survive are often mistakenly caught by hunters in traps meant for other creatures, or they are intentionally hunted down for their fur.

Sadly, red pandas have also become a victim of the illegal wildlife trade. Their big bushy tails, small stature and striking red coats mean they are sought-after pets, adding yet another pressure to their already dwindling population.

But it’s not too late.

If we act now, we can still save red pandas and the precious habitat they rely on for survival, working with local communities to ensure the survival of this threatened species.

That’s why we’re asking for your donation today. Your gift could help us provide local community wardens with the training and equipment they need to protect this threatened species. Your gift could help us support local indigenous groups in setting up and enforcing no-hunting zones in the last remaining red panda strongholds.

So please, donate today and help save red pandas.

Map showing the global distribution of red pandas.

In response to the dire situation faced by red pandas, FFI has been working tirelessly in northern Myanmar’s Imawbum Massif, a hot spot for these endangered animals, since 2012. This area supports one of the highest levels of biodiversity in the eastern Himalayas; it is also home to several other threatened species of global conservation importance including the Asiatic black bear, takin, and Blyth’s tragopan (a unique pheasant).

And we’ve seen real success – a team of FFI biologists captured the first footage of the red panda in Myanmar’s wild, providing us with the first recording of wild red pandas in the region, and inadvertently discovered the Myanmar snub-nosed monkey, previously unknown to science.

Map showing location of Imawbum National Park, Myanmar.

We have been working with local indigenous Law Waw and Lisu communities to create a community-managed no-hunting zone where the red panda can thrive. Local community rangers have been employed with the task of protecting them, resulting in a noticeable decline in hunting in the region.

Additionally, FFI supported the designation of a national park in Imawbum, covering over 380,000 hectares of remote forest, where some of the last remaining red pandas live. This will go a long way towards providing the threatened species with legal protection, and it is hoped that this – combined with Myanmar’s raw log export ban – will encourage the Chinese government to stop loggers from entering Myanmar, thus limiting the threats to this endearing species.