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(Chinese) Red Panda Ailurus (fulgens) styani © Mathias Appel / Creative Commons

Red Pandasin India, Bhutan and Nepal

(Chinese) Red Panda Ailurus (fulgens) styani © Mathias Appel / Creative Commons

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Published 3 March 2020

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Illegal trade of Red Pandas in India and across borders: new TRAFFIC study released on #WorldWildlifeDay

New Delhi, India, 3rd March 2020—World Wildlife Day, a new assessment of the poaching and illegal trade of Red Pandas Ailurus fulgens in India and the neighbouring countries of Nepal and Bhutan was released that finds the animals at risk of incidental snaring but not of targeted poaching, except in Nepal.[1] 

Assessment of illegal trade-related threats to Red Panda in India and selected neighbouring range countries

Report author(s):
S. Badola, M. Fernandes, S.R. Marak, C. Pilia

Publication date:
March 2020


Notes:

1 World Wildlife Day is celebrated every year on 3rd March and this year it aims to celebrate the special place of wild plants and animals in their many varied and beautiful forms as a component of the world’s biological diversity.

2 Traditionally regarded as a single species, new genetic research published last week by Hu et al. supports the previously proposed separation of Red Panda Ailurus fulgens into two species: the Himalayan Red Panda (A. fulgens) and the Chinese Red Panda (A. styani).

Hu, Y., Thapa, A., Fan, H., Ma, T., Wu, Q., Ma, S., Zhang, D., Wang, B., Li, M., Yan, L. and Wei, F. (2020). Genomic evidence for two phylogenetic species and long-term population bottlenecks in red pandas. DOI 10.1126/sciadv.aax5751. Science Advances 6(9).

3 There are only 14,500–15,000 Red Pandas left in the wild and the species is listed as “Endangered” on the IUCN Red List of Threatened species. International trade is strictly regulated through its listing in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), while in India, the species is protected under Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.