More Red Pandas, this time from Australia's Perth Zoo. Making their first public appearance today, the playful pandas seemed to enjoy the attention. The cubs are happy and healthy and have an attentive mother in Chori, who shuttles her cubs between all three nesting boxes in the exhibit. It's nice to have vacation homes.
Red Pandas are only distantly related to their better known black and white Giant Panda cousins, but they do share the panda name and a love of bamboo. While these little furballs were born back in June of 2008 at the Red River Zoo in North Dakota, they are
news to us here at ZooBorns and we figured we should share them. Named Xiao Li (male) and Li Ming (female), more pictures and information are available on the Zoo's Red Panda blog.
The Denver Zoo is chock full of babies these days. Two twin red panda cubs, Amaya and Takeo, are now on display and appear quite playful. Red pandas are classified as endangered, with an estimated population of less than 2,500 mature individuals remaining in the wild. Their population continues to decline due to habitat fragmentation and hunting. Who in the world could hunt these little guys?!
I would trade in every stuffed animal I have ever loved for 10 minutes with one of these little guys. The Edmonton Valley Zoo announced the birth of Tai and Pip on May 26th, 2008. Red Panda births are relatively rare in North America, with only four newborns in 2007. Every cub is crucial to the conservation breeding program and these little guys will contribute to the effort to protect their species as well as delight visitors.
These little furballs will eventually grow-up to be even more colorful furballs.
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