Friday, September 17, 2010

Rare Red Panda Cubs Born in Britain


From the Telegraph: The boy and girl cubs, which arrived in July, were the first to be born at Paignton Zoo Environmental Park in Devon for six years.


Julian Chapman, senior head keeper of mammals, said he hoped visitors would be able to see the cubs out and about in the next few weeks.

''With its rusty red coat and a long bushy tail, it resembles a raccoon more than a panda.

''It is mainly nocturnal and spends most of its time curled on a branch with its tail over its head. It lives in pairs and forms small family groups.'

The cubs were born to parents Randy, aged three, and six-year-old mother Mandy.

Randy came to Paignton from Dortmund Zoo in Germany in September 2008 and Mandy arrived from Dublin Zoo the previous January.

The red or lesser panda comes from the mountains of Bhutan, China, India, Laos, Myanmar and Nepal.

It lives in high altitude forest and eats bamboo shoots, grass, roots, fruit, acorns and occasionally mice and birds.

The panda has fur on the pads of its paws to help keep heat in and to prevent it slipping on wet or snowy surfaces.

The female has one or two young after a gestation period of 90 to 150 days and the young stay with the mother until they are a year old.

The red panda is classed as ''vulnerable'' by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, which means it is facing a high risk of extinction in the wild.

It has legal protection in Nepal and China, and can be found in several national parks.

Conservation breeding programmes in zoos are co-ordinated worldwide.

7 comments:

Amusing Bunni said...

Awww, they have the cutest little faces! What a cute story! It's nice to read cute and happy news. I hope you have a nice weekend Teresa and rest up.
God Bless.

Christopher - Conservative Perspective said...

Teresa,

OK, you got my weak spot!

Youth of any of God's creatures are just irresistable and that includes these cubs!

What,,, Are you and Bunni in competition for the cute animal post's? LOL

No matter really, as all conservative ladies are winning the hearts and minds of Americans including you two!

Teresa said...

Amusing Bunni,

Yes, it is good to read cute and happy news. Have a good weekend:) God Bless!

Christopher,

Bunni's the expert on cute animal posts. These cubs look so cute I just couldn't pass up posting this article.

Conservative ladies have been kicking some butt lately.

Amusing Bunni said...

Chris, you are too sweet and funny!
There is no competition amongst us gals....cuteness can be shared by all! Every post of happiness helps us all..... I know you were kidding ;-)

Teresa, you are a doll, If I can be an expert on something, cute animals is great. I'm also an expert on not so fun things...which is why I prefer to be happy!

Hey, I recall seeing a video of them at the zoo, and I did a search. I didn't find the zoo one, but here's another.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06CbMa0kDr8&p=3182E2FEB73E13D5&playnext=1&index=37

Have a fun weekend. I'm going down stairs for my coffee and I hope the little bunny is in the yard next door. Every day it sits in the grass there, and hangs out in both our yards, it's so sweet, and it's like my little pet now...ha ha.

Quite Rightly said...

Such cutie-pies!

Woodsterman (Odie) said...

I've never heard of them before. They have the cutest faces in the animal world. Naturally Bunni was the first one here ... the Miss Soft Touch.

Kid said...

Cute little devils!

You've been to www.zooborns.com right?