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Red Panda
A russet, ring-tailed Himalayan tree-dweller — no relation to the giant panda, but the original "panda", and a shy bamboo specialist.
How to spot it
A cat-sized animal in warm reddish-brown fur, with a pale face, dark tear-marks and a long bushy tail ringed in red and cream. It shares the giant panda's false "thumb" for gripping bamboo, and has soft fur right down to the soles of its feet.
Where it lives
The temperate forests of the eastern Himalayas — Sikkim, the Darjeeling hills of West Bengal and Arunachal Pradesh — plus Nepal, Bhutan and southern China, high up among bamboo and rhododendron.
What it eats
Mainly bamboo leaves and shoots, topped up with fruit, berries, eggs and the odd insect. Like the giant panda it must eat a great deal, because bamboo gives so little energy.
Behaviour & life
Shy, largely solitary and most active at dawn and dusk, it spends much of its life in the trees and curls its tail over itself for warmth. It is the state animal of Sikkim.
In India
Classed as Endangered and protected under Schedule I, with the eastern Himalayas a global stronghold. Habitat loss, fragmentation and poaching are the main threats; zoos such as Darjeeling run dedicated breeding programmes.
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