The endangered red panda has found a friend in local student Katie Palzat. The Cochrane High School student has been working independently on a project on the species for the last four years.
“I’m trying to find a way that I can see the behaviour in a captive red panda and try to find a way to make a happier red panda. A happier panda would equal high rates of husbandry in captivity, which would help the species survive,” said Palzat in a video done by RockyDocs.
RockyDocs are short films that ‘focus on the student voice of learning experiences in Rocky View Schools.’
Palzat was inspired to undertake the project after the Calgary City Science Fair in 2010. She said she noticed that people weren’t aware of the red panda, a species they often thought was a type of fox.
“I would like my research to help zoos if it can, if not, it would be great even to raise awareness about red pandas,” she said.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, almost 50 per cent of the red panda’s habitat is in the Eastern Himalayas and the loss of ‘nesting trees and bamboo is causing a decline in red panda populations because their forest home is being cleared.’
In the video, Palzat described her research methods and how she goes about studying the species at the Calgary Zoo.
Palzat said she starts by identifying the panda she is studying and writes her observations, always taking into account variables such as weather or people who may also be observing them as well. She then said she reviews her notes and writes a summary that she tries to analyze to the best of her ability and then compare it with the rest of her notes.
Palzat said she sees zoos as a kind of arc, there to keep the animals alive.
“We’re taking down their habitats and hunting them and doing a lot of horrible things to get rid of them, even if it is by accident. I really respect zoos for that. I think we need to make them as good and as big as possible,” she said.
The project is something that Palzat said has helped her in other aspects of school, including how to discern proper research information and websites, how to become more dedicated to her school work and how exactly research projects are used and designed.
After four years of researching, Palzat’s biggest piece of advice for others is to ‘try to find something you enjoy enough to put a lot of time into it.’ For Palzat it has clearly been the endangered red panda.
To view the video, visit the RVS YouTube channel and search for RockyDocs – Red Pandas.
