Red Panda

Some look at me and ask if I'm even real,

I am regarded vulnerable, so make me a mighty big deal.

I am a living fossil, tens of millions of years in age am I

There was a time in China and Great Britain that I did die.

I'm not a bear, related to the Giant Panda or even the Raccoon,

I am of a family all my own, so stop contributing towards my doom.

I'm slightly larger than your domestic cat,

with a bear-like body and thick russet fur, I ain't very fat. 

My belly and limbs are black, and i'm marked white

 around my head and cute small eyes, i'm anything but a fright. 

A very skillful and acrobatic animal am I,

I can climb jump and run, up in the tree canopy high.

You'll find me in the Eastern Himalayas, where its always a bit of a freeze,

that's why I'm predominantly up off the ground, much happier up in the trees. 

My long bushy tail is for balance, and for warming winter cover too,

I am primarily an herbivore, eating bamboo and a other plants a few.

My forest home is reducing, as the trees are chopped away,

Poachers value our fur, bamboo becomes more scarce day upon day.

Locals consider our tails attractive good luck charms,

What is also rather disastrous is the impact of agriculture and farms.

We are solitary and often nocturnal and only live ten years at most,
Lend a hand to protect what I need as my land, so we can always forever together toast .