The NEW Zoo & Adventure Park in Wisconsin has some exciting news: six Red Wolf pups were born on May 22! All six pups are tucked away in the den with their mother, Mayo and father, Tasmaska.

Photo Credit:  NEW Zoo

A quick veterinary exam on May 28 revealed that the litter contains four males and two females. All six pups appear healthy and are exhibiting age-appropriate behaviors.

Mayo left the Western North Carolina Nature Center last fall to be paired with Tamaska under the recommendation of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums’ Species Survival Plan (SSP). The purpose of the SSP is to cooperatively manage populations of threatened and endangered animals in accredited facilities.

Red Wolves are Critically Endangered, with only about 100 remaining in the wild and another 200 in captive breeding programs like those at the NEW Zoo and the Western North Carolina Nature Center. These Wolves one ranged throughout the Southeastern United States.  Today, Red Wolves are confined to a few wildlife refuges on the North Carolina coast. Though they are perilously close to extinction, the number of Red Wolves has increased since the 1970s.

See more photos of the pups below.

What is that pinkish furball? It's a baby Red Panda, born on June 7 at Wisconson's NEW Zoo. The Red Panda cub is creating excitement among visitors while on exhibit with its parents, Tae Bo and Leafa, even though napping is its biggest activity at the moment. It will be awhile before the baby is up and wandering around the exhibit.

This is the second cub for the couple and all are doing well. Red Pandas mature sexually at 18-20 months and the gestation period for ranges from 110 to 145 days. Feeding almost exclusively on bamboo, Red Pandas are found in mountainous terrain from Nepal through to north eastern India and Bhutan and into China, Laos and northern Myanmar and share part of their range with giant pandas. Their numbers continue to decline in the wild. 

Photo Credit: NEW Zoo