Red pandas are famously difficult to breed and are at risk of extinction. For the past two years, no red panda pairs in Australia have successfully produced offspring.
According to ABC News, a newborn red panda has just been welcomed at Altina Wildlife Park, located west of Wagga Wagga in New South Wales. Zoo staff reported that this is the first red panda cub born in Australia in two years.
Mother and cub red pandas – (Photo: Rebecca Surian).
Rebecca Surian, the animal manager and operations director at Altina Park, mentioned that red pandas are often sensitive during the mating process and can be affected by many external factors, making breeding difficult. Therefore, the birth of this cub is a remarkably unexpected event.
She noted that this is the first time the mother red panda, named Rani, has given birth at the age of 9, marking a joyful moment for a species at risk of extinction.
“We are incredibly excited about this new cub… We have never bred red pandas before and have only been caring for them for a year,” she shared.
She described the cub, which has not yet been named, as sleeping almost all day and when awake, it often “whispers” like a kitten.
In mid-December last year, Altina Wildlife Park also welcomed the birth of three black-and-white ring-tailed lemurs, another endangered species.
Regarding the zoo’s conservation efforts, Surian stated that they simply let nature take its course.
“We do not intervene unless absolutely necessary… We allow things to happen naturally,” she told ABC News.
Newborn red panda – (Photo: Rebecca Surian).
Red pandas can live up to 23 years – (Photo: Rebecca Surian).
Red Pandas at Risk of Extinction Red pandas are listed as an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). They are considered fully grown at about 18-24 months and have an average lifespan of around 10 years in the wild, with some even living up to 23 years. According to Vietnam News Agency, efforts to conserve red pandas are genuinely challenging, as zoos have seen difficulties in breeding this species. A small mammal native to the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China, red pandas are currently declining in numbers due to illegal trade, habitat loss, poaching, and deforestation. Currently, there are fewer than 10,000 left in the wild. |
