Howdy. I realize that I have probably seen at least a dozen red panda exhibits, but that I have no idea what actual red panda habitat looks like. I have seen documentaries about giant pandas in the wild and thus have a feeling for what their habitat looks like, but not red pandas. I was curious if anyone on ZooChat has seen red pandas in the wild and if so, if you could describe to us what their habitat is like (and/or post some photos...that would be spectacular)? My sense is that red pandas, like giant pandas, are very seldom seen in the wild, but there are several intrepid wildlife watchers here, so you never know until you ask.
Update: I had the brilliant idea of actually looking for pictures of wild red panda habitat and this popped out: Tulsi Ram Subedi | The Rufford Small Grants for Nature Conservation I'd still be very interested in hearing first hand accounts if anyone has seen a wild red panda.
I didn't see red pandas in the wild, but I know there are some good places in China, where the red pandas are very easy to see. Some of my friends have seen them. The red pandas also need bamboos, but their distribution is more south than the giant pandas. And the altitude of their habitat can be higher than the giant pandas.
I have just been in red panda country. It is covered in my Asia travel thread but I thought it would help to put it here as well. I have uploaded five photos of the habitat to the China Wildlife gallery also (and some of the red pandas themselves). The place I went was Labahe Nature Reserve, which is part of the Erlangshan National Park. This is just a few hours from Chengdu and is easy to reach by public transport, and has good accommodation there as well. It is well up into the mountains (roughly between 2000 and 2500 metres), and the forest is a mix of conifers and deciduous trees. At the moment (November: autumn) all the deciduous trees are in their red and yellow autumn colours and it is very beautiful. The forest floor is covered almost everywhere in a waist-high carpet of bamboo (which makes it very hard to see a lot of the birds!) but elsewhere there are just sheets of moss, or big tumbly thickets of wild roses and sometimes a rhododendron or two. The roses are in fruit in November, and there is a particular type of tall deciduous tree which has lost most of its leaves but is covered in little red berries. It is this tree in which the red pandas feed and why this time of year is the best for seeing them (i.e. in winter they probably won't be in those trees and in summer they will be hidden in leaves). Labahe is probably the best place for seeing red pandas. In three full days I had ten panda sightings, of at least seven (possibly eight) individual pandas. Some of the pandas are a bit wary but others are completely relaxed about being watched as they feed openly in the canopy. Fantastic place. There are also giant pandas there but you would need to be lucky indeed to see them.
