Dwindling population of Red Panda is set for a turn around in Sikkim

Gangtok, May 20 (UNI) Red Panda's dwindling population will soon show some improvement, official sources said here today.

The Red Panda, Sikkim's state animal, figures in the Schedule one of the Wildlife Protection Act, due to its dwindling population, both in the wild and in captivity.

If everything goes well a pair of these animals will be brought from the Padmaja Naidu Zoological Park, Darjeeling, under the coordinated breeding programme and will deliver cubs in a couple of months in the Himalayan Zoological Park, Blbuley, officials added.

Presently, the zoo houses four male and one female red panda.

The wildlife officials here are jubiliant over the news as a research showed that the population of these pandas, also known as cat bear for its cat-like face and bear-like body, hardly increased in captivity in around 46 zoos abroad during the last decade.

This time the cubs will not only survive but also multiply in future, Joint Director of Forest, Parks and Zoo, Gut Lepcha said.

''We also plan to exchange some of the surplus animals with other zoos and release some into the wild.

Earlier efforts to breed in captivity had succeeded only partially, he said.

State Wildlife Senior Research Officer Usha Lanchungpa said these cat bears live in temperate mixed forest of Himalaya in Nepal, Sikkim, Northern Part of Bengal and Asom, Arunachal Pradesh and in some parts of Yunnan in South China.

Although no census had been conducted anywhere in the world as yet, the species was very rare and is believed to be in the danger of extinction in the near future unless corrective measures were taken, she said.

Ms Usha said a number of factors were responsible for their dwindling population. The species started disappearing due to low fertility rate, high rate of mortality in infants and juveniles, depression due to breeding in captivity and loss of habitats due to developmental activities in the area. This forced some wildlife lovers and zoos to seek upgradation of their breeding programmes with more scientific approach for increase in their population, she said.

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