Hi everyone! I am a 17-year old volunteer from Brisbane, Australia. In this first post, I’d like to share with you the story of my recent trip to Nepal to save my beloved Red Pandas! I should probably fill you in on my backstory. I have had an undying passion for Red Pandas for many, many years and the Red Panda Network has enabled me to transfer my passion into action. Actually, my adventure with the Red Panda Network began long before I ever walked on Nepali soil. My recent volunteer experience spent two years in the planning stages before it ever came to head. During that time, the Red Panda Network team was extremely enthusiastic and helpful, which set all my worries about visiting a developing country at the mere age of seventeen, to rest. On November 17, 2011, I began my epic adventure in Nepal, in search of the RedPanda….

The first part of my journey was set against Taplejung’s dense rhododendron forests. After a short 45-minute flight from Kathmandu to Bhadrapur in Nepal’s lowlands and an 11-hour bus ride to Taplejung, my search for the Red Panda had officially begun.

The Red Panda Network’s Taplejung team (Damber, Sumetra, Ramesh and Mahindra) and I combed the forest daily in search of Red Pandas. We found numerous signs indicating the presence of Red Pandas including, well… their scat, their fur, their resting sites, and even their paw prints. But sadly, I saw no Red Pandas in Taplejung…

After a small case of food poisoning, involving lots and lots of trips to the toilet, I made my way to Ilam to join the winners of the Mozilla-sponsored Eco Trip, a Red Panda Network initiative to increase awareness about the plight of the Red Panda. I met up with Andre (the Mozilla Eco Trip Video Contest winner) and his friend Jen, as well as Brian Williams (the founder of the Red Panda Network), and with Rajiv, Ramesh and Pinju, the field team who are very talented at finding Red Pandas! Again we plodded along through the same routine that I had followed in Taplejung, but this time… we were lucky!

After our first day of searching, we were heading back to ‘base’ for a well-deserved rest and lunch break, when suddenly we got a call on our walkie talkie from Pinju and Ramesh. They had found Red Pandas! And not just one, but two! And cubs! Quickly we raced to the spot where Pinju and Ramesh told us to meet them, and from there walked deep into the jungle until we found the two 12-month old cubs. They were absolutely adorable! The feeling that swept over me when I first saw them was indescribable! We named the cubs, Suntali and Speedy. Roughly translated, “Suntail” means ‘Orange Beautiful,’ which fit her perfectly. “Speedy” earned his name because after about two hours of watching these pandas nonstop, he scuttled down the tree so fast that if you had blinked, you would have missed him!!

Whenever I felt like my field schedule was tough, I reminded myself how hard the men and women of rural Nepal work! They are up by 6 AM and don’t go to bed until their guests do, which is often very late!

Based on my observations, the Red Panda Network’s conservation work is making a huge difference for the future of the Red Panda in Nepal, primarily because it is based around community development. It was an amazing experience to meet Red Panda Network Forest Guardians and discover that they are using the income they receive for their field work to develop their communities. In turn, this is creating a new appreciation for the Red Panda or “Habre” in rural Nepal.

Alas, my visit to Taplejung did not coincide with construction of the new Community Conservation Resource Center, but this provides one of many inspiring reasons to return to Nepal!

And now, I would like to leave you with a quote from the amazingly wonderful Dr. Jane Goodall: “What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”

Red Panda Cub Seen on RPN Eco Trip, December 2011. Photo Courtesy of Rajiv Paudel.

Make Spirits Bright this Holiday Season by sharing the unique gift of Red Panda conservation. Your tax-deductible donation to the Red Panda Network helps preserve red panda habitat in the eastern Himalayas, one of the planet’s biodiversity hotspots!

We would like to devote this post to reflect on the loss of a Nepalese Pioneer Wildlife Biologist, Dr. Prahlad Yonzon.  Dr. Yonzon died in a road accident in Kathmandu on Monday, October 31, 2011.  His bicycle was hit by a truck at Balkhu, and he later died at Kathmandu Hospital, according to local sources.
Dr. Yonzon had a distinguished career and was the first Nepalese and one of the first researchers in the world to conduct research on red panda in the wild.
Dr. Yonzon was also the former chairperson of Resources Himalaya Foundation, a Nepalese not-for-profit organization that helped to build skills and knowledge for young scientists in Nepal.  His loss is felt deeply among the wildlife conservation community, as Dr. Yonzon was a mentor for countless young Nepalese conservationists.

In honor of his contribution to wildlife conservation in Nepal, Red Panda Network will dedicate the Information Room in our Community Conservation Center to

Red Panda Network's Conservation Center in Nepal

Dr. Yonzon.  We will name this room the Yonzon Information Room, where we will distribute information about the red panda and conservation of the eastern Himalaya, two subjects to which Dr. Yonzon devoted years of his career.

Please join us in a moment of silence at 12:00 PM (Kathmandu time) on 12 November, 2011, to reflect on the leadership and dedication of Dr. Yonzon.

With hope for the future,

The Red Panda Network Team

Rajiv Paudel, Damber Bista, Brian Williams, Dirk Kloss, Nancy Whelan and our field partners – Himali Conservation Forum – Mr. Ramesh Rai

Join Red Panda Network’s mission to build awareness for this beautiful endangered species the red panda (aka firefox) and its habitat – both are disappearing due to human pressures: road building, tree cutting, cattle grazing and many other factors. With your help, Red Panda Network will build a new Community Conservation Resource Center that will empower the local community in Nepal to champion the protection of red panda habitat one of the planet’s biodiversity hotspots!

Children, Zoos and Schools around the world have already started celebrating International Red Panda Day, which in 2011 is officially September 17 (always the third Saturday in September). Others will celebrate even after September 17 as calendars permit, to create as many Red Panda Rangers as possible in a single day. This year, Red Panda Network pledges to apply all funds raised in honor of the annual celebration to build a new Community Conservation Resource Center in Nepal!

Join Red Panda Network’s efforts to save the red panda and its critical habitat by contributing to the renovation of the new Community Conservation Resource Center! You can view footage of the conservation center site via YouTube and stay tuned to the Red Panda Network channel for updates as renovation of the new center gets underway! With your generous help, Red Panda Network can expedite this renovation project!

Who Benefits from the new Conservation Center in Nepal?

The local people! The local communities in Taplejung District of Eastern Nepal. The Community Conservation Resource Center will increase the earning potential and capacity of local people by being a focal point for training in sustainable living.  This center will provide medicinal plant rearing, tourism hospitality and lodge construction, sustainable living, and fuel efficient stove building.

This work enables local people to increase their ability to conduct other types of work in the future and thus creates potential alternative income sources for them. It also ensures the people employed by the project can increase their income so there is less need to destroy forest. In general, the center will benefit local communities through capacity building, employment, and increased understanding of the economic and inherent value of their forests.

The Red Panda Network Field Team! In addition, Red Panda Network community conservation team and partners will benefit from having a central hub where they can conduct training and lead educational workshops.

The Animals! All species found within red panda habitat, including the clouded leopard, takins (shaggy goat-antelopes) and rare assamese macaques langurs (monkeys found only in these forests) will benefit from Red Panda Network’s ongoing habitat protection program.

Amanda Mayberry presenting our CEO, Brian Williams with a $225.00 donation

noticed was how slowly they move, even though I had read about this characteristic many times. It might surprise you too, since the red panda looks a lot like a raccoon, and raccoons are fairly quick-moving. The word “sloth” kept popping into my head as I watched them crawling through the branches of their new exhibit.

At the end of the day, Amanda Mayberry, a Sacramento Zoo carnivores keeper, offered to take us on a “backstage tour” of the zoo and we were lucky enough to spy on some of the most fascinating creatures – including the red panda! Before we left, Amanda presented Brian with a check for $225.00, representing the proceeds from the lucky bamboo sales which AAZK collected at their booth and kindly donated to Red Panda Network education efforts.

I called the Sacramento Zoo today and learned that more than 4300 visitors attended during Pandamonium weekend. That’s great news for the red panda and we hope many of these families will participate in the upcoming International Red Panda Day on September 17!

We, 4 peoples were in survey team including Tulsi R. Subedi -Red Panda Ecologist, Chandra Limbu- Field Technician, Ratna Baniya and Tek Bahadur Baniya- forest guardians.  We were surveying transect 3 of Block number 6 in Chawakhola Community Forest (Hereafter Kalikhola Women Community forest). During the course of field survey Tek Bahadur Baniya called me sir, sir…….. here is red panda. We rushed towards him and we saw one adult red panda was sleeping on tree branch. It was really cute……….., quickly I captured few snaps on my camera and measured the altitude and GPS location. It was on 2555 m elevation from sea level. On the basis of field marks and other characters we guessed it was adult female.

Our forest Guardian Ratna Baniya Said ”Now a days red pandas are in lower altitude” But why? There is a reason we got from the survey – there are two species of bamboo in our field site. One species is confined to higher altitude (above 2800 m) and next is on lower altitude. In higher elevation of red panda range in Taplejung natural death of whole bamboo took place because once they bloom, develop seed and they die. The whole regeneration process to develop a new habitat will took at least 10 years. In this way the red panda habitat is shrinking and our main aim should be to protecting an existing habitat. 

I have also collected the data of raptors in the area and incidence of raptor predation on red panda was conformed because we saw part of red panda hide on the open forest area killed by Mountain Hawk eagle or Golden eagle (they were encountered near by this area). I found risk of red panda predation by raptors could increase in this area. Livestock farming is the main occupation of local communities of red panda range and they have cattle herding station inside red panda habitat which lead to forest destruction. This type of culture could create lot of open forest. Open forest is the suitable habitat for raptors to find their prey.  

So our aim should be to create and declare red panda conservation area in such type of “Hot-Spots”. I hope from our continuous hard work, support from our donors and other partner organization we will see it one day.

If you would rather skip the trek, Mozilla will donate the value of the trek (US$8,500) to one of the conservation charities that they support (RPN is one of them!).

Deadline for submissions is Friday March 25, 2011.

The winning video will be selected by Mozilla based on the following criteria:
25% presentation
50% relevance
25% originality

Read the full contest rules and regulations here.

Good luck!

Beau asked his dad Rodney to send this to me. Could I have a better job in the world that to get photos of beautiful children like Beau.

Beau goes to a weekly class at the Birmingham Zoo. This photo was taken after a class that highlighted Red Pandas. On the day that he went there was a classroom lesson, a trip inside the zoo to look at the red panda and the zookeeper gave even more info on the 2 red pandas at the zoo.
Beau asked his dad to send me this photo.

Beau you are my Red Panda Hero…Thanks for the inspiration.