The endangered Red 'Panda'

Look at that adorable little face! This red panda, which more closely resembles a raccoon than it does a black and white panda is on the endangered list. It is thought that fewer than 2,500 adults still exist.

These adorable creatures, who were once included in the same family as panda bears and then included in the same family as raccoon, now has its own categorization. It is listed in the Ailuridae family. There are no other animals in that category currently.

These bamboo eaters are approximately 42 inches long, including the tail. They weigh between seven and 14 pounds. Its fur is a beautiful red (which deepens in the winter) and white about the back and the face. Its tail is brownish red. And interestingly, their bellies, legs, and feet are black.

Although the red panda really has little in common with the panda bear other than common habitat, they have a common name. It has been said that this little creature had the name "panda" before it was later given to the panda bear as. The panda bear was thought to look like a bigger version of the red panda so it was dubbed the "giant panda."

The biggest threat to the red panda is said to be humans. They are hunted for their pelts. Further, their habitats are being disturbed by people moving into their area. Their main "natural predator" is the snow leopard.

Unfortunately, the red panda gives birth once a year to one or two babies. The babies stay with their mothers until the following year when new babies are born. Young red pandas are able to reproduce at about the age of 18 months.

These beautiful creatures live to be about 8 to 10 years old, though they have been known to live to be about 15 years old in captivity.

The Red Panda, an Endangered Species

Dwarfed by Its Black-and-White Relative, This Panda Goes Unnoticed

In 2008, Paramount Pictures released the animated film, Kung Fu Panda. The lead character was a bumbling giant panda bear named Po, voiced by Jack Black. Kids immediately recognized Po's fat, black-and-white-furred exterior as that of a giant panda. When kids first saw Po's teacher, Master Shifu (voiced by Dustin Hoffman), they probably had a much more difficult time distinguishing what type of animal the character represented. Was it some weird kind of bunny-raccoon-mouse combination?

Fortunately, all is revealed. Po is not the only panda bear in the film. Shifu, too, is a panda - a red panda.

What is a Red Panda?

Red pandas, also known as red cat bears or lesser pandas, make up the species Ailurus fulgens. They resemble raccoons in size and shape and are not much bigger than the average house cat. As their name implies, their coat is reddish-brown with white areas, particularly around the ears, cheeks, nose, and eyes. They are approximately 38-44 inches long, not quite half of which is made up of their long, bushy tails. These tails are ringed and help red pandas to balance and to keep warm. They have sharp claws, built for climbing, and cat-like whiskers. They rarely weigh more than 14 lbs.

Red pandas generally live from eight to ten years. These animals prefer to live alone, except during mating season. Females care for their young for about three months. Males have little to do with their offspring.

Where Do Red Pandas Live?

Red pandas mostly live in the Sichuan and Yunnan Provinces of China, Myanmar, and Nepal. They live at cool, high-altitude climates, up to 13,000 feet above sea level. They are scattered amongst the Himalayan foothills, where there is plenty of rainfall and thick forest.

According to the World Wildlife Federation's (WWF) website, red pandas are divided into two sub-species:

"The Styan's red panda (Ailurus fulgens styani) is found in China’s Sichuan and Yunnan provinces and northern Myanmar. The western red panda (Ailurus fulgens fulgens) is native to Nepal, Bhutan and the northern Indian states of Assam and Sikkim."

Red pandas spend much of their time above ground, climbing and sleeping in trees.

What Do Red Pandas Eat?

Red pandas are primarily herbivores. Like their giant brethren, red pandas feed off bamboo. They bend the shoots in order to reach their leaves. Although the pandas' primary food sources are bamboo leaves, they also eat berries, nuts, and insects.

Why Are Red Pandas Endangered?

According to the WWF, red pandas are "highly endangered." They were given this dubious distinction in 1988. Their habitat, like that of the giant panda, is shrinking due to deforestation. Bamboo forests in China and Nepal have been cut down so that the land may be put to agricultural uses. The plant is also used as timber for homes and firewood.

Although these pandas are protected internationally and within Nepal, "over 75% of potential red panda habitat falls outside protected areas," says the WWF. Some sources, such as the Smithsonian National Zoological Park, estimate that less than 2,500 red pandas remain in the wild.

In addition to loss of habitat, red pandas must avoid predators. Although they have some natural enemies, such as snow leopards, the pandas have humans to fear the most. According to the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology website, red pandas are "illegally hunted and sold to zoos or killed for their skin. Very few zoos purchase these illegal specimens, making this a fairly unproductive business, but skins can be found in local villages and are used in cultural ceremonies."

What Can Be Done to Protect Red Pandas?

Noble organizations like the WWF and the Red Panda Network greatly assist in educating the public about the red panda's plight. The WWF and its partners work closely with Nepal's government to study these spirited animals, to conserve the species and its habitats, and to inform local communities about dangers threatening red pandas.

The objective of the Red Panda Network's Red Panda Project "is to conduct non-invasive, cost-effective status surveys throughout the red panda’s range by 2011." The Project is conducting extensive research to obtain baseline population figures in order to propose an effective species conservation program.

Zoos, too, play a hand in conservation. According to the Red Panda Network:

"More than 80 zoos currently have red pandas, and almost all of them participate in a management program to ensure the survival of a viable zoo population. In North America, the red panda population management program is called the Red Panda Species Survival Program (SSP). The SSP keeps a studbook of all red pandas on the continent, determines which animals should be mated, and develops long-term research and management strategies for the species. Other management programs have been created in Japan, Europe, Australia, and China."

Certainly, the efforts of these organizations are commendable. But real conservation efforts must come from the governments of China, Myanmar, and Nepal. The government of Nepal has done more than most when it comes to protecting an endangered animal. Still, its people depend on the natural resources from the red panda's habitat to survive. According to the Red Panda Network, these people lack viable alternatives. The Network hopes to "create a new system in which conserving the red panda's prime habitat will actually benefit the surrounding communities."

Until that happens, the red panda's ecosystem will continue to diminish. But endangered animals that were worse off than these pandas have been brought back from the brink of extinction, largely due to the efforts of organizations like the WWF and animal-friendly governments. Only time will tell if the red panda will thrive or go the way of the dodo.

Red Pandas Reveal An Unexpected (Artificial) Sweet Tooth

Researchers from the Monell Center report that the red panda is the first non-primate mammal to display a liking for the artificial sweetener aspartame. This unexpected affinity for an artificial sweetener may reflect structural variation in the red panda's sweet taste receptor.

The findings may shed light on how taste preferences and diet choice are shaped by molecular differences in taste receptors.

"The red panda's unique taste receptor gives us a tool to broaden our understanding of how we detect sweet taste," said the paper's senior author, Joseph G. Brand, PhD, a biophysicist at Monell. "Greater insight into why we like artificial sweeteners could eventually lead to the development of more acceptable sugar substitutes, potentially benefiting diabetics and other individuals on sugar-restricted diets."

Many species like sweet-tasting foods, but there are some exceptions. In an earlier study, Brand and Monell comparative geneticist Xia Li, PhD, reported that cats – both domestic and wild – can not taste sweets due to a defect in one of the genes that codes for the sweet taste receptor.

The current research extended those findings by relating sweet preferences to genetic analyses of sweet receptor structure in six related species. Like the cat, each of the species tested -- red panda, ferret, genet, meerkat, mongoose, and lion -- belongs to the Order Carnivora.

The species, although closely related, vary widely with regard to the types of foods they eat. For example, lions, like other cats, are obligate carnivores, meaning that they eat almost exclusively meat. Meerkrats are mainly insectivores, while red pandas are primarily herbivores that almost exclusively eat bamboo leaves and shoots.

By studying the structure and function of the sweet receptor gene across species and how this relates to differences in taste preferences and diet selection, the researchers seek to provide a framework to increase understanding of individual differences in human taste function, food choice and nutritional health.

"The taste world of every species, and even every individual, is unique, defined in part by the structure of their taste receptors," said Li. "We need to know more about these differences and how they influence our diet."

In the study, published online in the Journal of Heredity, preferences for six natural sugars and six artificial sweeteners were tested in a zoo setting. For each sweet molecule, the animal was given access to both the sweet solution and water for 24 hours. The animal was said to prefer the sweet solution when it drank much more sweet fluid than water.

DNA samples from each species were used to examine the structure of the sweet receptor gene Tas1r2, which codes for the T1R2 sweet taste receptor. T1R2 is one of two taste receptors that join together to recognize sweetness.

The sweet taste receptors contain binding sites for a variety of natural sugars and artificial sweeteners. However, species vary regarding which sites they possess, due to subtle differences in receptor structure.

As expected from the previous findings, the lion did not prefer any of the sweet solutions. This could be explained by its defective Tas1r2 gene, which prevents the lion from expressing a functional sweet taste receptor. With no sweet receptor, the lion is unable to detect – or prefer – sweet-tasting compounds.

Each of the remaining species preferred at least some of the natural sugars. Consistent with having a functional sweet receptor, Tas1r2 genes from these species did not show the defect found in lion and other cats.

Because only primates were believed to be able to taste aspartame, the researchers predicted that none of the Carnivore species tested would show a preference for the artificial sweeteners.

This indeed was the case for five of the species. However, the sixth species – the red panda – drank large amounts of the artificial sweeteners aspartame, neotame, and sucralose.

Seeking to explain this unexpected behavior, the researchers compared Tas1r2 genes from various species that can and cannot taste aspartame. They were surprised to find no consistent differences between aspartame tasters and nontasters.

However, the genetic analysis did reveal that the red panda's sweet receptor has a unique structure that is different from any of the other species examined.

"This may explain why the red panda is able to taste artificial sweeteners," said Li, who is the paper's lead author. "What we don't know is why this particular animal has this unusual ability. Perhaps the red panda's unique sweet receptor evolved to allow this animal to detect some compound in its natural food that has a similar structure to these sweeteners."

The findings suggest that the receptor mechanisms for sweet taste are more complex than previously suspected. "This is the essence of molecular science," remarked Brand, "Asking a behavioral question and getting a molecular answer."

Future studies will explore how protein structure of taste receptor genes predicts stimulus binding and ultimately provide insight into how variations in taste receptor genes affect taste perception, food choice and nutritional status.

Taste tests for the red panda and other animals in the study were conducted at two zoos in Switzerland by Dieter Glaser, PhD, from the University of Zurich. Also contributing to the study were Monell scientists Gary Beauchamp and Weihua Li, along with Warren Johnson and Stephen O'Brien from the National Cancer Institute.

‘World’s Least Known Bird’ Discovered Breeding in Afghanistan

Researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society have discovered the only known breeding area for the large-billed reed warbler, once called “the world’s least known bird species.”

Researchers for the Wildlife Conservation Society have discovered for the first time the breeding area of the large-billed reed warbler — dubbed in 2007 as “the world’s least known bird species” — in the remote and rugged Wakhan Corridor of the Pamir Mountains of north-eastern Afghanistan.

Using a combination of astute field observations, museum specimens, DNA sequencing, and the first known audio recording of the species, researchers verified the discovery by capturing and releasing almost 20 birds earlier this year, the largest number ever recorded.

A preliminary paper on the finding appears in the most recent edition ofBirdingASIA. The authors include: Robert Timmins, Naqeebullah Mostafawi, Ali Madad Rajabi, Hafizullah Noori, Stephane Ostrowski and Colin Poole, of the Wildlife Conservation Society; Urban Olsson of Göteborg University, Sweden; and Lars Svensson.

The recent discovery of large-billed reed warblers in Afghanistan represents a watershed moment in the study of this bird, called in 2007 the world’s least known bird species by BirdLife International. The first specimen was discovered in India in 1867, with more than a century elapsing before a second discovery of a single bird in Thailand in 2006.

“Practically nothing is known about this species, so this discovery of the breeding area represents a flood of new information on the large-billed reed warbler,” said Colin Poole, Executive Director of WCS’s Asia Program. “This new knowledge of the bird also indicates that the Wakhan Corridor still holds biological secrets and is critically important for future conservation efforts in Afghanistan.”

The find serves as a case study in the detective work needed to confirm ornithological discoveries. The story begins in 2008, when Timmins was conducting a survey of bird communities along the Wakhan and Pamir Rivers. He immediately heard a distinctive song coming from a small, olive-brown bird with a long bill. Timmins taped the bird’s song. He later heard and observed more birds of the same species.

Initially, Timmins assumed these birds to be Blyth’s reed warblers, but a visit to a Natural History Museum in Tring, United Kingdom to examine bird skins resulted in a surprise: the observed birds were another species. Lars Svensson — an expert on the family of reed warblers and familiar with their songs — then realized that Timmins’ tape was probably the first recording of the large-billed reed warbler.

The following summer (June 2009), WCS researchers returned to the site of Timmins’ first survey, this time with mist nets used to catch birds for examination. The research team broadcast the recording of the song, a technique used to bring curious birds of the same species into view for observation and examination. The recording brought in large-billed reed warblers from all directions, allowing the team to catch almost 20 of them for examination and to collect feathers for DNA. Later lab work comparing museum specimens with measurements, field images, and DNA confirmed the exciting finding: the first-known breeding population of large-billed reed warblers.

WCS is currently the only organization conducting ongoing scientific conservation studies in Afghanistan — the first such efforts in over 30 years — and has contributed to a number of conservation initiatives and activities in partnership with the Afghanistan Government, with support from USAID (United States Agency for International Development). In 2009, the government of Afghanistan gazetted the country’s first national park, Band-e-Amir, established with technical assistance from WCS’s Afghanistan Program. WCS also worked with Afghanistan’s National Environment Protection Agency (NEPA) in producing the country’s first-ever list of protected species, an action that now bans the hunting of snow leopards, wolves, brown bears, and other species. In a related effort, WCS now works to limit illegal wildlife trade in the country through educational workshops for soldiers at Bagram Air Base and other military bases across Afghanistan.

Situated between the mountainous regions of the Pamirs in Tajikistan, Pakistan, and China, the Wakhan Corridor supports a surprisingly wide range of large mammal species, including Marco Polo sheep (or argali), ibex, lynx, wolf, and the elusive snow leopard.

Indian Warbler ‘Lost’ For 139 Years Makes Spectacular Return

Large-billed Reed-warbler: the world’s least known bird.

Ornithologists across the world are celebrating with the news that a wetland bird that has eluded scientists ever since its discovery in India in 1867 has been refound. Twice.

The Large-billed Reed-warbler is the world’s least known bird. A single bird was collected in the Sutlej Valley, Himachal Pradesh, India, in 1867, but many had questioned whether it was indeed represented a true species and wasn’t just an aberrant individual of a common species.

But on 27 March 2006, ornithologist Philip Round, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology, Mahidol University, was bird ringing (banding) at a wastewater treatment centre (the royally initiated Laem Phak Bia Environmental Research and Development Project) near Bangkok, Thailand.

“Although reed-warblers are generally drab and look very similar, one of the birds I caught that morning struck me as very odd, something about it didn’t quite add up; it had a long beak and short wings,” said Round. “Then, it dawned on me—I was probably holding a Large-billed Reed-warbler. I was dumbstruck, it felt as if I was holding a living dodo.”

“I knew it was essential to get cast-iron proof of its identity. I took many photographs, and carefully collected two feathers for DNA analysis, so as not to harm the bird.”

Round contacted Professor Staffan Bensch, from Lund University, Sweden, who had previously examined the Indian specimen and confirmed it did represent a valid species. He examined photographs and DNA of the Thai bird and confirmed the two were the same species.

“A priority now is to find out where the Large-billed Reed-warbler’s main population lives, whether it is threatened, and if so, how these threats can be addressed.” —Dr Stuart Butchart, BirdLife International

“This rediscovery of the Large-billed Reed-warbler on the shores of Inner Gulf of Thailand (a BirdLife Important Bird Area, IBA) illustrates the importance of wetland habitats and the remarkable biodiversity they are home to,” said Ms Kritsana Kaewplang, BCST Director. “It also demonstrates the contribution of routine monitoring and ringing of migratory birds at even well-known sites.”

“This remarkable discovery gives Indian ornithologists an added incentive to continue our search for the Large-billed Reed-warbler in India,” said Dr Asad Rahmani, Director of the Bombay Natural History Society. “Like the discovery of Bugun Liocichla last year in Arunachal Pradesh, it shows us just how much we still have to learn about our remarkable avifauna.”

BirdLife International’s Dr Stuart Butchart, commented: “Almost nothing is known about this mysterious bird. The Indian specimen has short, round wings and we speculated it is resident or short-distance migrant, so its appearance in Thailand is very surprising. A priority now is to find out where the Large-billed Reed-warbler’s main population lives, whether it is threatened, and if so, how these threats can be addressed.”

But, in a further twist to this remarkable tale, six months after the rediscovery, another Large-billed Reed-warbler specimen was discovered in the collection of the Natural History Museum at Tring, in a drawer of Blyth’s Reed-warblers (Acrocephalus dumetorum) collected in India during the 19th Century. Once again, Professor Staffan Bensch confirmed the identification using DNA.

“Finding one Large-billed Reed-warbler after 139 years was remarkable, finding a second—right under ornithologists’ noses for that length of time—is nothing short of a miracle,” said Butchart.

The second specimen is from a different part of India and is bound to fuel debate as to the whereabouts of more Large-billed Reed-warblers.

“Now people are aware Large-billed Reed-warblers are out there, we can expect someone to discover the breeding grounds before long. Myanmar or Bangladesh are strong possibilities, but this species has proved so elusive that it could produce yet another surprise,” said Butchart.

Parrot Fossil 55 Million Years Old Discovered In Scandinavia

Artists impression of the parrot-like bird ‘Mopsitta tanta’ dating back 55 million years. The fossils indicate that parrots once flew wild over what is now Norway and Denmark

Palaeontologists have discovered fossil remains in Scandinavia of parrots dating back 55 million years. Reported May 14 in the journal Palaeontology, the fossils indicate that parrots once flew wild over what is now Norway and Denmark.

Parrots today live only in the tropics and southern hemisphere, but this new research suggests that they first evolved in the North, much earlier than had been thought.

The fossil parrot was discovered on the Isle of Mors in the northwest of Denmark – far from where you’d normally expect to find a parrot. It’s a new species, officially named ‘Mopsitta tanta’. However, already its nick-name is the ‘Danish Blue Parrot’, a term derived from a famous comedy sketch about a ‘Norwegian Blue Parrot’ in the 1970s BBC television programme ‘Monty Python’.

The Scandinavian connection makes links to Monty Python’s notoriously demised bird irresistible, but the parallels go further. The famous sketch revolves around establishing that a bird purchased by John Cleese is a dead parrot, and in dealing with these fossils, palaeontologists were faced with the same problem.

As Dr David Waterhouse, lead author of the paper, explains: “Obviously, we are dealing with a bird that is bereft of life, but the tricky bit is establishing that it was a parrot. As with many fragile bird fossils, it is a wonder that anything remains at all, and all that remains of this early Danish parrot is a single upper wing bone (humerus). But, this small bone contains characteristic features that show that it is clearly from a member of the parrot family, about the size of a Yellow-crested Cockatoo.”

Dr David Waterhouse was funded by a UCD postgraduate scholarship from 2002 to 2006. He is currently Assistant Curator of Natural History at Norfolk Museums Service. Dr Bent Lindow was an IRCSET ‘Basic Research Grant’ scholar at UCD and the University of Copenhagen from 2004 to 2007. He is currently postdoctoral researcher in palaeontology at the Natural History Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen.

At around 55 million years old, this is very much an ex-parrot. Indeed, Mopsitta represents the oldest and most northerly convincing remains of a parrot ever to have been discovered.

Waterhouse continues: “It isn’t as unbelievable as you might at first think that a parrot was found so far north. When Mopsitta was alive, most of Northern Europe was experiencing a warm period, with a large shallow tropical lagoon covering much of Germany, South East England and Denmark. We have to remember that this was only 10 million years after the dinosaurs were wiped out, and some strange things were happening with animal life all over the planet.”

“No Southern Hemisphere fossil parrot has been found older than about 15 million years old, so this new evidence suggests that parrots evolved right here in the Northern Hemisphere before diversifying further South in the tropics later on.”

So was Danish Mopsitta “pinin’ for the fjords”? “It’s a lovely image,” says Waterhouse, “but we can say with certainty that it was not. This parrot shuffled off its mortal coil around 55 million years ago, but the fjords of Norway were formed during the last ice age and are less than a million years old.”

Amphibians as Environmental Omen Disputed

Amphibians, for years considered a leading indicator of environmental degradation, are not uniquely susceptible to pollution, according to a meta-analysis to be published in Ecology Letters.

After a review of over 28,000 toxicological tests, researchers from the University of South Dakota, Yale University and Washington State University are challenging the prevailing view that amphibians, with their permeable skin and aquatic environment, are particularly sensitive to environmental threats and, as such, are “canaries,” or predictors of environmental decline.

“The very simple message is that for most of the classes of chemical compounds we looked at, frogs range from being moderately susceptible to being bullet-proof,” said David Skelly, professor of ecology at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and a member of the research team. “There are lots of other kinds of environmental threats that have led to their decline, including habitat conversion, harvesting for food and the global spread of the Chytrid fungus, which is mowing down these species in its path.”

The team, led by Jacob Kerby, an assistant professor at the University of South Dakota, based its analysis on information gleaned from the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Aquatic Toxicity Information Retrieval database, examining 1,279 species, among them segmented worms, fish, bivalves such as clams, insects and snails. Those species were exposed in water to various concentrations of 107 chemical agents, including inorganic chemicals, pesticides, heavy metals and phenols, a class of chemical compound.

“What our results suggest is that all animals are susceptible to chemical stressors and that amphibians are potentially good indicators,” said Kerby. “There isn’t any evidence that they’re a uniquely leading indicator. We tried to be comprehensive in the types of chemicals and organisms that we examined.”

In light of the findings, Skelly said, scientists should evaluate the absence, presence or abundance of amphibians in wild populations as “signals” of potential exposure to different chemicals in the environment. “If we have such an understanding for several species, we may be able to use their responses, collectively, as a means of narrowing potential causes of environmental degradation,” he said.

The EPA, according to the paper, uses African Clawed Frogs as a proxy for biological diversity when determining a species’ sensitivity to chemical exposures, even though that particular species does not occur naturally in North America. “Our knowledge of amphibians’ sensitivity to particular chemicals or classes of chemicals has not been used to design assays for effects in nature,” Skelly said.