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Red Pandas of Singalila

Ailurus fulgens

Singalila, Neora Valley, and the cloud forests of the eastern Himalayas.

Cloud forests draped in moss, rhododendron canopies, bamboo thickets at 3000 metres, and the quiet discipline of searching for an animal that does not want to be found.

Red pandas exist only in a thin band of bamboo-under-rhododendron cloud forest — fewer than 10,000 remain in the wild.

The Species, The Wild Around It

One animal, the whole system behind it

The red panda is endangered, elusive, and almost ridiculously specific in its needs — it lives only in a narrow band of cloud forest where bamboo grows beneath rhododendrons.

To track a red panda is to walk in a forest that holds the Himalayan black bear, the satyr tragopan, and a hundred species of mosses and lichens that grow nowhere else.

Where We Travel

Read the landscape

Singalila National Park (Darjeeling) and Neora Valley in West Bengal, and select cloud forests in Sikkim and Arunachal.

TumlingKalapokhriSandakphuNeora ValleyN10 KM27.10°N · 88.00°E
Singalila National Park
Tumling

Ridge start. Rhododendron and bamboo; the first search saddles.

Species Intelligence

Red in numbers

Honest data from forest-department logs and our own field records. We do not promise sightings — we tell you exactly what the probability is, and which months it collapses.

Wild population (global est.)
<10,000
Declining · habitat shrinking
2000200820162024now
IUCN Status
LCNTVUENCR
Endangered
CITES Appendix I
Range / Habitat
2,200–3,800 m
bamboo under rhododendron
Adult Mass
3–6 kg kg
Lifespan 8–14 yrs · 1–2 cubs / yr
Sighting probability · dawn · Tumling–Kalapokhri
peak 76% · Oct
Jan
40
Feb
46
Mar
64
Apr
66
May
50
×
Jun
×
Jul
×
Aug
Sep
44
Oct
72
Nov
76
Dec
70
Best months: October – December
Daily Activity
00061218
Crepuscular · feeds dawn and dusk on bamboo
Pressures
Habitat loss82
Free-ranging dogs / disease48
Poaching40
Climate shift55

With Whom We Travel

They lead. We follow.

Local Sherpa, Lepcha, and Bhutia communities, and the Forest Department teams trained in red panda monitoring.

Meet Singalila Guide Association

From The Field

Field notebook

Selected entries from our logs — what was seen, what was waited for, who logged it. Shared with every guest before they arrive.

Nov 06 · 2025
27.10°N · 88.01°E
Tumling–Kalapokhri
wx Cloud · 6°C · wind 12 kph

Day three. Norbu spotted droppings at 09:40, fresh. We sat at the saddle until 14:00. Nothing. We came back the next morning. She was on a rhododendron branch at 06:32, eating bamboo, for fourteen minutes. She did not look at us.

SPECIES LOG
Red panda (1)
Satyr tragopan (1)
Yellow-billed blue magpie (4)
Norbu · local guide
RED PANDA · RHODODENDRON
Tumling–Kalapokhri · Nov 06 · 2025

More notes from the field, in your inbox — dispatches like these when there’s a story worth seeing.

Where The Share Goes

Audited. Not branded.

A defined share of every onevaasā experience returns to a published, named, audited fund. This is the program-wide ledger for the last financial year.

Shared with community partners
0
+38%
FY25 · to local guides, drivers, homestays and range concessions
Hectares supported
0 ha
+220 ha
Grassland and habitat restoration grants
Guests on-park
0
small by design
Across 24 experiences · avg 5.9 per group
Days · zero off-road
0%
policy
Every drive logged · zero vehicle violations
MethodA defined share of every experience is allocated to a published, named, audited fund. We name the partners. We name the line items. We name the audit firm.

Experience Formats

How this one is offered

Expedition

Available

Social departures (eight max) and private signature curations.

Excursion

Available

Educational programs for students.

Exploration

Available

Research-led, into Sikkim and Arunachal.

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