Endangered red pandas forage in the cloud-laden treetops of temperate broadleaf forests, a shrinking habitat in the Eastern Himalayas.

A mostly solitary animal, except for breeding, the beloved mammal with red fur and a black underside masks its presence to predators on the forest floor.

At the Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium, red panda plush toys have outsold other animal plush toys most years in the last decade.

It’s no surprise that the zoo’s two female red pandas, Xia and Marcy, with their signature red tear-dropped eye markings, inspired the zoo's choice of a mascot. But the red panda is more than a mascot at the zoo.

Promoting an animal oozing with cuteness overload provides a lifeline to save it and other animals in the wild.

Populations of the charismatic mammal in its home range in Nepal, India, Bhutan, Myanmar and southern China dropped by about 50% in the last two decades, according to the Red Panda Network, a U.S. nonprofit leading efforts to save the animal and restore its habitat.

Something as whimsical as a naming contest for the zoo’s red panda mascot Ruby served as a $900 fundraiser to pay for conservation efforts in panda habitat in Nepal.

This is not a distant relationship between a U.S. zoo and a wild population of endangered animals more than 7,000 miles away. The zoo’s director of conservation, Shafkat Khan, recently returned from a two-week trip to Nepal to teach residents there about replantings in panda habitat, among other work.

The Pittsburgh Zoo is a co-leader, along with the San Diego Zoo, of a new Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Saving Animals from Extinction Red Panda program, established earlier this year to conserve red pandas in the wild.

Challenges and hope

“There’s a lot of conservation problems, human problems with tension between people needing to live off the land versus other animals and forests that need to be in the land,” Khan said.

Population growth in impoverished communities and development in Nepal is fueling the decimation of red panda habitat, according to the Red Panda Network.

“There are no criminals or poachers, but there are people trying to live on the land. It’s easy to simplify and vilify them,” Khan said. “The solution is getting people to value the forest and providing economic benefits to them.”

There is good news.

A Red Panda Network study documented pandas living in 93% of an unprotected corridor of eastern Nepal in 2019, compared to 88% in 2011. The nonprofit works with local communities to preserve the endangered mammal in the study area – the Panchthar-Ilam-Taplejung corridor.

“It has become the model working with local communities to preserve red pandas and has been replicated in a proven effective strategy to other areas in the red panda range,” said Terrance Lee, deputy director of the Red Panda Network in Eugene, Oregon.

There is much work ahead, which attracted the Pittsburgh Zoo and other organizations to help.

Where is it?

In the wild, the endangered red panda is elusive. It’s not much larger than a domestic cat.

If you are not on a tour dedicated to finding pandas, success is not guaranteed. When Khan visited Nepal, he didn’t see one.

“I was in prime panda habitat,” he said.

However, it was the dry season, when the pandas move to the deep ravines of the forest, which are difficult to access.

“They’re there but the pandas are well camouflaged,” Khan said.

“When I want to see them, I go to the enclosure here at the zoo.”

The forests of Nepal are environments rich with wildlife and plant species, which is one of the reasons the Pittsburgh Zoo decided to help with international efforts to save the animals in the wild, Khan said.

In Nepal forests, there are not just tigers but at least 10 species of wild cats. So saving forests benefits not only pandas but also helps preserve other species. 

“The sweet spot is this: The conservation partnership also helps combine both wildlife conservation and climate change action together,” Khan said.

Preserving and replanting forest areas also combats climate change.

Plant a panda

Funds from zoo grants and donations support conservation efforts such as “Plant a Red Panda Home” for the Red Panda Network.

They have been tackling reforestation and economic opportunities for people who live in or near red panda habitat and offering eco-tours for nature lovers to see them in the wild. The nonprofit has also supplied efficient stoves for residents to lessen the need for firewood.

“We plant native trees in degraded and fragmented habitats to restore and reconnect forests for red pandas and other species,” Lee said.

That means adding more trees and vegetation to build natural bridges to link islands of forest habitat broken up by roads and other developments.

Their efforts are working, with documented panda population increases in some areas.

The secret sauce is educating local people and providing economic opportunities and jobs in forest gardening programs, which boost skills for other sustainable employment and restore key red panda habitats, Lee said.

Reforestation takes time, but improvement can only take several years.

“Planting trees does not make a forest,” Khan explained.

The task is to plant green coverage for the pandas to move between forest patches in the short term. Then in 10 to 15 years, those trees will add to the forest, Khan said.

Conservation isn’t just about saving an animal or a habitat, it’s providing economic opportunities for local people who live near and in panda habitat.

American zoos can provide audiences who can get involved as consumers of, say, forest products.

“If there is a sustainable project that is of interest to our audience,” Khan said, “we can provide that connection.”

Pittsburgh’s pandas

Since the Pittsburgh Zoo acquired its first red panda over a decade ago, people are still excited to see them, said Ray Bamrick, the zoo’s lead animal keeper and zoo historian.

“I still get excited when I see them,” he said.

Here are some fun facts:

• The Pittsburgh Zoo grows enough bamboo on its grounds to feed its two red pandas and other zoo animals. Bamboo comprises the majority of the pandas’ diet in the wild and zoos.

• The two red pandas at the zoo, weighing 30 pounds total, produce 23 pounds of manure daily, Bamrick said.

• The zoo’s current two female pandas are not related and were born at the same zoo – the Red River Zoo in North Dakota.

• The zoo keeps two red pandas and has no plans to add a third panda because they do not live in colonies.

• The most recent arrival, 2-year-old Marcy, was chosen with thoughts of breeding, Bamrick said. When Xia passes, the zoo plans to request a suitable male.

• Red pandas have different personalities. Xia, who made her first public appearance at the zoo in 2013, was scared when she arrived, Bamrick said. She scratched and bit him a few times but that did not deter him from guiding her to become a “workable” animal. “I’m glad I took the journey with her.”

• Kovu, the male panda who died last year, had a sweet disposition. Bamrick’s nicknames for him included “Mr. Cool” and the “Red Rascal.”

The newest panda, Marcy, is not aggressive but cautious with people, he said.

Mary Ann Thomas: mthomas@post-gazette.com

First Published: June 4, 2024, 9:30 a.m.
Updated: June 5, 2024, 4:26 p.m.