A red panda baby has been born in Darjeeling’s Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park, the country’s largest high-altitude zoo. According to a zoo official in Darjeeling, this is the sixth red panda born in the park this season, and both the mother, Yeshi, and the cub are doing well. The cub’s name has yet to be determined by officials. The red panda, an endangered species that is mostly a herbivore, prefers frigid climatic areas, with about half of them located in the Eastern Himalayas.
ANI published photos of the panda walking on a tree and roaming about the zoological complex.
West Bengal: A female red panda, Yeshi, gave birth to a cub at Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park in Darjeeling
— ANI (@ANI) July 22, 2021
"Both mother and cub are doing fine. This is the fifth birth of a red panda cub in this season," says Zoo Director Dharmdeo Rai pic.twitter.com/m1wyRHJ5Mm
The Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park is well-known around the world for its conservation breeding efforts for the red panda, snow leopards, Tibetan wolves, and other critically endangered Eastern Himalayan animal species. These animals are skilled and acrobatic, and they mainly stay on trees by balancing on their long, bushy tails. They also utilize their tails to keep warm throughout the winter.
Red pandas are increasingly threatened by climate change and rising deforestation, which is reducing their native habitat. According to WWF, there are presently less than 10,000 remaining in the wild. Poaching is another major threat to pandas, who are killed for their unique fur.
