Red Panda
They have long, soft, reddish-brown fur on the upper parts, blackish fur on the lower parts, and a light face with tear markings and white badges similar to those of a raccoon, but each individual can have distinctive markings. Its skull is roundish with medium-sized upright ears, its nose is black, and its eyes are blackish. Its teeth are robust. Its long, bushy tail with six alternating transverse ochre rings provide balance and excellent camouflage in a habitat with moss- and lichen-covered trees.
The legs are black and short with thick fur on the soles of the paws. This fur serves as thermal insulation on snow-covered or icy surfaces and conceals scent glands, which are also present on the anus.
The head and body length of a red panda measures 50-64 cm, and its tail is 28 to 59 cm long. Males weigh 3.7-6.2 kg and females 3-6 kg. The red panda is specialized as a bamboo feeder with strong, curved and sharp semi-retractile claws standing inward for grasping narrow tree branches, leaves, and fruit. Like the giant panda, it has a "false thumb", which is an extension of the wrist bone. When descending a tree head-first, the red panda rotates its ankle to control its descent, one of the few climbing species to do so
Habitat
The red panda is endemic to the temperate forests of the Himalayas and ranges from the foothills of western Nepal to China in the east. Its easternmost limit is the Qinling Mountains of the Shaanxi Province in China. Its range includes southern Tibet, Sikkim and Assam in India, Bhutan, the northern mountains of Burma, and in south-western China, in the Hengduan Mountains of Sichuan and the Gongshan Mountains in Yunnan. It may also live in south-west Tibet and northern Arunachal Pradesh, but this has not been documented.
The distribution range of the red panda should be considered disjunct, rather than continuous. A disjunct population inhabits the Meghalaya Plateau of north-eastern India. The red panda lives between 2,200-4,800 m altitude, inhabiting areas of moderate temperature between 10-25 °C with little annual change. It prefers mountainous mixed deciduous and conifer forests, especially with old trees and dense understories of bamboo.
Diet
Red pandas are excellent climbers and forage largely in trees. They eat mostly bamboo and may eat small mammals, birds, eggs, flowers, and berries. In captivity, they were observed to eat birds, flowers, maple and mulberry leaves, and bark and fruits of maple, beech, and mulberry.
Like the giant panda, they cannot digest cellulose, so they must consume a large volume of bamboo to survive. Their diets consist of about two-thirds bamboo, but they also eat mushrooms, roots, acorns, lichens, and grasses. Occasionally, they supplement their diets with fish and insects. They do little more than eating and sleep due to their low-calorie diets. Bamboo shoots are more easily digested than leaves, exhibiting the highest digestibility in summer and autumn, intermediate digestibility in the spring, and lowest digestibility in the winter. These variations correlate with the nutrient contents in the bamboo. Red pandas process bamboo poorly, especially the cellulose and cell wall components. This implies microbial digestion plays only a minor role in their digestive strategy. To survive on this poor-quality diet, they have to eat the high-quality sections of the bamboo plant, such as the tender leaves and shoots, in large quantities, over 1.5 kg of fresh leaves and 4 kg of fresh shoots daily. This food passes through the digestive tract fairly rapidly (about 2–4 hr) so as to maximize daily nutrient intake. Red pandas can taste artificial sweeteners, such as aspartame, and are the only nonprimates known to be able to do so.
Breeding
Red pandas are able to reproduce at around 18 months of age and are fully mature at two to three years. Adults rarely interact in the wild except to mate. Both sexes may mate with more than one partner during the mating season from mid-January to early March. A few days before birth, females begin to collect material, such as brushwood, grass, and leaves; to build a nest, which is normally located in a hollow tree or a rock crevice. After a gestation period of 112-158 days, the female gives birth in mid-June to late July to one to four (usually 1–2) blind and deaf cubs weighing 110-130 g each.
After birth, the mother cleans the cubs, and can then recognize each by their smell. At first, she spends 60% to 90% of her time with the cubs. After the first week, the mother starts spending more time outside the nest, returning every few hours to nurse and groom the cubs. She moves the young frequently among several nests, all of which she keeps clean. The cubs start to open their eyes at about 18 days of age. By about 90 days, they achieve full adult fur and colouring and begin to venture out of the nest. They also start eating solid foods at this point, weaning at around six to eight months of age. The cubs stay with their mother until the next litter is born in the following summer. Males rarely help raise the young, and only if they live in pairs or in small groups. A red panda's lifespan ranges between eight and 10 years, but individuals have been known to reach 15 years
Population
According to IUCN Red List, they are classed as Endangered(E) with a decreasing population trend., Red panda population estimate range between 16,000 and 20,000 individuals, including 3,000-7,000 individuals in China, 5,000-6,000 in India, and few hundred in Nepal. Most of them living within national parks in small protected zones.
Threats
Red panda main threats are habitat degradation and loss due to deforestation. They are also hunted and poached and suffer from encounters with stray dogs. People, often children, sometimes disturb their habitat and try to catch an individual which sometimes causes their death, particularly if they are young.
Conservation
The Red Panda is included in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. It is listed in Schedule I of the Indian Wild Life (Protection) Act 1972, the highest protection possible for a species in India. It is also legally protected in Bhutan, China (where it is classed as a Category II species under the Wild Animal Protection Law, Nepal and Myanmar (by the Wildlife Act of 1994). In China, the species is Red Listed nationally as Vulnerable. In the most recent Red List for Nepa, they are considered to be Endangered. In Myanmar it is found in at least three protected areas: Hkakaborazi National Park, Hponkanrazi Wildlife Sanctuary and Emaw Bum proposed National Park. It is difficult to determine how much of the Red Panda’s range in the country these protected areas cover. Hunting and, in Emaw Bum, logging are widespread within their confines. In Bhutan it is found in the following protected areas: Jigme Dorji, Thrumshingla and Jigme Singye Wangchuck National Parks, Bumdeling and Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuaries, Toorsa Strict Nature Reserve, biological corridors connecting these reserves, and the biological corridor connecting Thrumshingla and Royal Manas National Parks. It has also been recorded in the Royal Botanical Park, Khaling Wildlife Sanctuary and Wangchuck Centennial Park.
In India it is found in 19 protected or otherwise managed areas: Lachung Reserve Forest, Kanchendzonga National Park (NP), Barsey Rhododendron Sanctuary, the buffer and transition area of the latter two, Maenam Wildlife Sanctuary (WLS), Pangolakha WLS, Kyongnosla Alpine Sanctuary, Shingba Rhododendron Sanctuary, Singalila NP, Neora Valley NP, Kamlang WLS, Eaglesnest WLS, Zemithang Valley Community Forest, Nuranang Valley Community Forest, Mehao WLS, Mandla-Phudung CF, Anjaw Reserve forest, Mechuka-West Siang CF, Mouling NP and Dibang WLS. It might also inhabit Taley Valley WLS, Pakhui WLS and Sessa Orchid Sanctuary. These protected areas cover about one-third of the species’s total potential habitat in India. In the 2013 Population and Habitat Viability Analysis (PHVA) workshop, 22 protected areas (outside Meghalaya) were identified as having potential habitat for Red Panda, some with only very small areas. Furthermore, the workshop participants identified medium to high levels of threat in these areas from two or more of development activities; fire; herders; firewood and non-timber forest product collection; illegal trade/'accidental' hunting; dogs (very prevalent); refuse; and habitat reduction. In Arunachal Pradesh (the state believed to have the largest Red Panda population in India) around 60% of the forest is under community ownership rather than having PA status. Also in Sikkim, 60% of potential Red Panda habitat falls outside the PA system. Enforcement of protective legislation, especially outside protected areas, is almost non-existent .
China has 46 protected areas containing Red Panda, covering about 65% of the species’s habitat in China. Poor law enforcement in PAs was listed as a problem during the 2012 PHVA workshop. Livestock grazing and collection of non-timber forest products occur widely in these areas.
Red Panda has been confirmed in nine of Nepal’s PAs: Sagarmatha NP; Makalu Barun NP; Langtang NP; Rara NP; Kangchenjunga Conservation Area (CA); Annapurna CA; Gaurishankar CA; Manaslu Conservation Area; and Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve. In all these PAs, habitat loss and degradation, poaching and dog problems and developmental activities have been rated as moderate to severe by participants in the Red Panda PHVA workshop. Currently there is a Global Species Management Plan (GSMP) for Red Pandas held in zoos around the world. This plan is closely allied to current field conservation efforts. The three PHVAs were largely the initiative of, and funded by, the zoo community. The aims of the GSMP are to contribute both directly and indirectly to Red Panda conservation by: providing a genetically and demographically sustainable and behaviourally competent back-up population for the wild population; holding the potential to supply individuals for genetic or demographic supplementation or reintroduction programmes; educating and the raising of public awareness of Red Panda, its uniqueness and conservation needs; and providing financial, technical, scientific and other support and expertise to the planning and implementation of in situconservation and research 

Priority conservation actions fall into four main categories:
1. To protect against habitat loss: improve and manage Red Panda habitats (including within corridors); improve connectivity, including across international borders; balance developmental activities by promoting eco-friendly and sustainable development with minimal impact on Red Panda habitat; increase areas under protection; implement better Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Initial Environmental Examination (IEE) for all development programmes; engage political willingness and win support; 
develop and implement landscape-level conservation policy, identifying unprotected Red Panda habitat and
 making legal provision for the declaration of Red Panda Community Conservation Areas.
2. To reduce habitat degradation: restore degraded habitats, plant bamboo; regulate tourism by the use of entry permits; zone PAs to define restricted-access zones in core areas for Red Pandas, facility 
zones, and resource use zones, with restricted visitor access during the breeding season (set quotas for non-timber forest products); educate, sensitise, and promote community participation to reduce and mitigate threats to Red Panda and its habitat; promote the use of alternative energy and building materials; provide sustainable livelihoods; enhance range-land management, using native species; reduce livestock numbers, especially of 
unproductive breeds; develop an integrated agriculture, pasture and 
agroforestry system; develop proper rubbish disposal systems; improve community stewardship in natural 
resources management; improve fire-fighting, in part by training communities, developing a national fire fighting strategy, ensuring PA management plans include comprehensive coverage of forest fire (the implementation of a fire strategy including forest fire alert and monitoring system, forest fire mapping and zoning, provision of fire fighting equipment, and controlled burning to prevent fires).
3. To reduce deaths of Red Pandas: strengthen law enforcement and improve physical protection; enhance transboundary cooperation on both of the former; strengthen coordination/collaboration between 
line agencies and other stakeholders; implement a reward and punishment system both for 
communities and forest department; establish anti-poaching units (in community forests and PAs) with capacity building for front-line, anti-poaching staff; train customs officials; reintroduce captive-bred individuals to reinforce local populations; formulate a dog management plan to control, sterilise and vaccinate dogs; engage army personnel in border bases to keep their dogs in check and not let them roam free in Red Panda areas.
4. To improve awareness: design and implement a dedicated awareness programme using radio, pamphlets, posters, and documentary film; secure adequate funding; improve conservation education (with a focus on Red Pandas) in schools; establish/strengthen Green Force Clubs; implement a Red Panda research programme, identifying priority research topics, and including regular monitoring of its habitat; develop a trans-national ‘Project Red Panda’.