Episode Information

This film unravels the mystery behind the secretive life of the fire cat, the cherub of the treetops: the red panda. This is first time they have been filmed in the wild, courting, mating, nest building and rearing their newly-born cubs. Due to the forbidding terrain of its mountain habitat, red pandas have successfully eluded biologists and photographers since the French naturalist Fredrick Cuvier discovered them in 1821. There is hardly any significant film or photographic record of the natural history of this species in the wild. So this strikingly handsome bamboo eating carnivore, a taxonomic enigma, has been fighting its battle for survival in the eastern Himalayas alone. We follow the successful reintroduction of two panda, Mini and Sweety, in to the wilds of Singalila National Park. As we track the team of rangers we capture the tremendous sense of anticipation and excitement accompanying this truly momentous occasion of wildlife conservation.