Pink pandas tracked by satellite in conservation ‘milestone’

Conservationists are satellite tracking pink pandas in the mountains of Nepal to locate out much more about the aspects that are driving them in the direction of extinction.

The mammals are endangered, with numbers down to a handful of thousand in the jap Himalayas and southwestern China.

Ten pink pandas have been equipped with GPS collars to check their selection in the forests in the vicinity of Mount Kangchenjunga.

The GPS collars are said to be operating well and yielding “exciting info”.

The six girls and four males are staying tracked and photographed employing digicam traps in a conservation hard work involving scientists, vets, authorities officers in Nepal and conservation group Purple Panda Community.

“This is a terrific milestone in pink panda conservation”, claimed Guy Bahadur Khadka, director general of Nepal’s division of forests and soil conservation.

The 10 pandas have been named by community people today as Paaru, Dolma, Chintapu, Mechhachha, Bhumo, Senehang, Ngima, Brian, Ninamma and Praladdevi.

The pink panda (Ailurus fulgens) was in the beginning regarded as a relative of the raccoon because of its ringed tail, and was later imagined to be relevant to bears.

The species is now identified to be in a family of its have and one particular of the most evolutionary unique and globally endangered mammals in the planet.

The decline of the forests that supply shelter and a provide of bamboo for food stuff is a massive difficulty for the purple panda.

Conservationists in Nepal hope the research around the course of a yr will give worthwhile facts about how to improved secure a person of the very last remaining populations.

The pink panda

• The modest mammals resemble bears but are in a genus of their own recognised as Ailurinae
• The wild populace proceeds to decrease owing to habitat loss, poaching, and inbreeding
• Illegally hunted in southwest China, for its bushy tail, from which “good-luck allure” hats are built
• Life in trees and predominantly eats bamboo, applying sharp, curved claws to grip the stems
• Not closely associated to the large panda
• Guarded in all nations around the world in which it lives, in which hunting is illegal.

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