A baby red panda at the National Zoo’s facility in Virginia — three pounds of dark reddish-colored, white and black fur — is doing well and growing, zoo officials report.
Our #redpanda cub at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute is 3️⃣ pounds of adorable. He’ll be venturing out of the nestbox and climbing on his own soon. #WeSaveSpecies pic.twitter.com/IweJNqEzpl
— National Zoo (@NationalZoo) August 30, 2019
Officials said the red panda is “still young but already has thick fur and sharp claws.” He spends most of his time in his nest box, but officials said they expect that he will soon be “climbing trees with ease.”
The red panda was born to mother Moonlight in June. Red pandas are named for their thick, woolly layer of fur that has a rusty red color. When the cub was born, officials said it would stay with its mother until it was 12 to 18 months old.
Annalisa Meyer, a spokeswoman for the National Zoo, said on Friday that it is not known when or if the baby red panda will debut at the zoo’s main facility on Connecticut Avenue in Northwest Washington.
She said experts decide which animals are moved around the Smithsonian’s facilities. The cub could stay at the conservation facility in Virginia or go to another zoo.
Red pandas are found in the wild in high-altitude forests of bamboo in Asia. They face threats from development and logging, according to experts.
The number of red pandas in the wild has dropped by as much as 50 percent in the past 20 years, according to experts. And the International Union for Conservation of Nature calls them “endangered.”
The biology institute has five red pandas, including the cub. The National Zoo has two red pandas: One is Asa, a female, and the other is Jackie, a male.
One red panda at the National Zoo became famous a few years ago.
Rusty, the red panda, created a stir six years ago when he escaped from an enclosure. He was found safe in Adams Morgan and returned to the zoo. Rusty now lives at the facility in Front Royal.
