The red panda (Ailurus fulgens), an arboreal mammal belonging to the family Ailuridae, and order Carnivora with herbivorous tendencies is distributed across the mountains of Nepal, Bhutan, China, India, and Myanmar. Due to different anthropogenic activities, the wild populations of A. fulgens have declined by 50% across these range countries. There are many gaps in the current knowledge concerning this endangered, elusive, and charismatic animal. We applied a systematic review process to better understand the research trends, conservation threats, and approaches and identified research gaps that potentially impact the long-term conservation of A. fulgens. Altogether, we analyzed 168 published papers over 33 years and in different thematic areas. Our study revealed that studies on A. fulgens are not evenly distributed across the range of the species, with the majority of them being from China, then Nepal, and very few from Bhutan, India, and Myanmar. The majority of the literature concerning captive and free-ranging populations of A. fulgens is skewed toward different aspects of biology including anatomy, general behavior, reproduction, nutrition, and different aspects of habitat including distribution patterns, and habitat use. There is limited information on A. fulgens genetics and it is confined to Chinese populations. Studies on diseases, the impact of anthropogenic activities like tourism, infrastructure development, movement ecology, interaction with other associated species, and studies addressing the impact of climate change on this species are very sparse. Hence, for the conservation success of A. fulgens understanding, these issues are critical.
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