The red panda is not a panda — it is the sole surviving member of the family Ailuridae, an ancient lineage that diverged from other carnivores over 40 million years ago.
It is the size of a domestic cat, russet-furred, with a distinctive mask of white markings around its eyes, and it spends most of its life in the canopy of temperate forests in the Himalayas, Nepal, Bhutan, China, and Myanmar.
The global population is estimated at under 10,000 individuals, declining by 50% over three generations. The primary threat is habitat loss.
The temperate forests that red pandas depend on are being cleared for timber, agriculture, and human settlement across the entire Himalayan foothills.