With support from Dublin Zoo, Chester Zoo, Rufford Small grant, a team of SMCRF had been in ANCA, recently declared conservation area in far western part of Nepal for survey of Red Panda presence in the area. Feasibility study reports (Api Nampa Conservation Area and Kailash Scared Landscape Initiatives) reflect presence of red panda in this area on the basis of focus group discussion. With aim to solve this issues and explore confirm distribution status of red panda, we generalized and identified basic potential distribution ranged VDCs (based on altitude) namely Biyash, Rapla, Sunseira, Kusa and Khandeshwori which need further confirmation through ground based survey as well as community consultations.

Ground based survey in contagious forest patches of Rapla – Biyasa and Rapla-Sunseira were conducted but showed absence of red panda. Additionally, other mammals (musk deer, himalayan shrew, goral, common leopard, Martin and primates) were recorded during field survey. Furthermore, we did consultation with local peoples at Rapla and they were unknown and never notice red panda in their range.