The red panda captured during a camera trapping exercise at Eaglenest wildlife sanctuary in Arunachal Pradesh.Telegraph photo

Jorhat, Oct. 7: A red panda has been photographed for the first time at Eaglenest wildlife sanctuary in Arunachal Pradesh.

Earlier, there had been reports of red panda sightings at Eaglenest but this is the first confirmation of the animal’s presence in the sanctuary — located in West Kameng District and home to at least 165 species of butterflies and 525 species of birds.

The rare mammal was photographed by one of the camera traps laid by Bangalore-based wildlife biologist Nandini Valho who is pursuing her post-doctoral degree from Australia’s James Cook University, in collaboration with the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore. Valho was assisted by Priya Singh, another wildlife biologist from the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, and park authorities.

The camera trapping exercise was a part of Valho’s PhD project for James Cook University.

Despite the vast diversity of wildlife at Eaglenest, there has been no documentation on the mammalian fauna at the sanctuary and the surrounding community forests, Valho said.

“Around 525 bird species are known (to exist) in a 100sqkm area centred around Eaglenest. This is globally second only to the eastern slopes of the Andes in South America. There could be still a few species of birds, butterflies or mammals to be discovered at Eaglenest,” she said.

In 2006, a new bird species, Bugun Liocichla, was discovered at Eaglenest. Only seven pairs of the species were found. The Tibetan Brimstone, a butterfly subspecies, seen just once before in history in China, was also spotted at the sanctuary recently.

The divisional forest officer of Eaglenest, Millo Tasser, told The Telegraph today that at least 10 camera traps were set up at various locations during a 60-day exercise carried out between April and June. “One of the cameras has trapped photos of a red panda. This is direct evidence of the presence of this rare species at the sanctuary,” Tasser said.

The 217sqkm sanctuary derives its name from the army’s Red Eagle Division, which was posted in the area in the 1950s.

The red panda (Ailurus Fulgens) is listed in Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act of India and is categorised as an endangered species in the IUCN Red List.

Apart from Northeast India, the small arboreal mammal is also found in Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and China.

In India, it is found in Sikkim, Darjeeling and parts of Meghalaya, apart from Arunachal Pradesh. It is the state animal of Sikkim.

Apart from red pandas, pictures of leopard cats, deer, elephants and jungle cats were also captured during the camera trapping exercise.

Park authorities are planning to host the first bird festival in Arunachal Pradesh at Eaglenest in the first week of February next year.

The sanctuary, whose lowest point is 500 metres above sea level and the highest over 3,500 meters above sea level, has a mind-boggling variety of birds and the festival aims to showcase this diversity.