Himalayan tahr is a group-living animal of high-altitude Himalaya, distributed all across the subalpine range that also formed an important prey base for large carnivores in Himalaya. The species is threatened due to habitat fragmentation, illegal poaching, and anthropogenic activities. We undertook population genetic assessment of Himalayan tahr from Western Himalaya and observed comparable genetic diversity at both mitochondrial and nuclear microsatellite loci. Bayesian skyline plots showed stable demography in the past several thousand years. We identified 27 unique individuals with a select panel of seven loci and the Bayesian structure analysis inferred two genetic clusters. The present study is the first report on the population genetic make-up of Himalayan tahr and can be used for long-term genetic monitoring of the species.

With the recent classification of red panda into two phylogenetic species, we propose ‘ Siang river ’ as a potential boundary for species divergence between the Himalayan red panda ( Ailurus fulgens ) and the Chinese red panda ( Ailurus styani ). Bayesian based phylogeny and MJ network splited all the sequences into two distinct clusters in accordance to the origin of the samples collected from the east and west side of the Siang river. The clade 1, that represented Himalayan red panda, was formed by inclusion of samples originated from the north West Bengal, Sikkim, and central Arunachal Pradesh and South Tibet. While, clade 2 represented Chinese red panda by inclusion of the samples originated from Dibang valley of eastern Arunachal Pradesh, India and Southwest China. We suggest being associated with diverse habitats, threats and transboundary distribution, both species of red panda require regional as well as multilateral cooperation for making species survival plan.

Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla) has experienced a rapid population decline across its distribution range mainly due to illegal harvesting for scale and local consumption for meat. We monitored 65 burrows of free‐ranging pangolins and collected 147 fecal droppings from five sites in the Darjeeling district of Northwest Bengal in the central Himalayas. On genetic analysis with the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene, we obtained four haplotypes with haplotype diversity of 0.479 ± 0.088. At 15 microsatellite loci, we identified 35 unique genotypes with relatively low level of genetic diversity (Ho‐0.382 ± 0.091). We also estimated the population genetic parameters and demographic history using Bayesian skyline plot which revealed a demographic decline in the population size in the past 200 years. The present study generated the base‐line population genetics estimates of Chinese pangolin, that may be used in genetic monitoring of the population and also aid to the geographical assignment of wildlife crime cases.