Growing my connection to red pandas through the Red Panda Network

Many years ago, 2002 to be exact, I started working here at Zoo Atlanta with giant pandas. I had previously worked with other bears, so I thought giant pandas would be about the same, but I was wrong. These bears were something else entirely their own. I became fascinated by them and all their strange and cool adaptations for surviving, from their coloration to their pseudothumb. Over the years, I watched as the Zoo contributed greatly to multiple giant panda conservation and research projects, both in situ and ex situ. At this time, there were also red pandas here at the Zoo. I knew of them, but since they were cared for by a different department, I never got to interact with them or learn just how great they were. 

That all changed several years later when the red pandas’ care was transferred to the Mammal Department, creating the subsidiary Panda Department. As I worked with the red pandas, I learned more and more about them, and like the giant pandas, I became fascinated by them as well.

Red pandas are not directly related to giant pandas, but they share many of the same survival adaptations, from their diet to their pseudothumbs. One thing that red pandas did not have in common with the giant pandas, however, was the amount of resources that were dedicated to their conservation in the wild. Some of that started to change with the development of the Red Panda Network in 2007. 

The Red Panda Network works throughout Nepal and is an organization that is committed to the conservation of wild red pandas and their habitat through the education and empowerment of local communities. 

I knew of the Red Panda Network due to International Red Panda Day, celebrated every September (September 19 this year), but I didn’t know much about them. In 2011, that all changed when Zoo Atlanta introduced the Mabel Dorn Reeder Conservation Endowment Fund.  I didn’t think that I would be able to help that first year, as I had never written a grant proposal before and it was kind of a daunting process. The following year, due to some encouraging words from my manager, I reached out to and worked with the Red Panda Network to prepare and submit my first grant proposal in 2012, which was awarded funding for the development of the Forest Guardian program. 

This very successful program, which involves the local community watching over and protecting the remaining red pandas and their habitats, is still up and running. Since 2012, I have built a connection with the Red Panda Network and have submitted a new proposal every year on their behalf, and they have received funding for 11 of those years. The projects have morphed over time due to need, but the main goal of saving red pandas and their habitat has not. 

The latest project that Zoo Atlanta has helped fund for the past few years is the Plant a Red Panda Home project. This project involves building multiple greenhouses and shade houses to raise thousands upon thousands of native tree saplings for planting to help restore red panda habitat, while also creating forested corridors so that isolated red panda populations could once again mingle with one another.

It is amazing to see what these funds can do to help this organization save red pandas, along with multiple other species in the wild. I am honored to have been able to work with the Red Panda Network over the years, and I am grateful that Zoo Atlanta has been able to support this organization as well.      

(Photo courtesy Red Panda Network/ Fabian Muehlberger)   

Kenn Harwood
Curator of Mammals and Project Champion for the Red Panda Network