by Twins In The House: Red Pandas Babies Are The Newest Attraction
Zoo Boise has two additional twins to their family on the 21st of June, 2021. With great pleasure, the zoo officially announced the birth on social media. The twins are born to a pair of amazing parents, Dolly and Spud. They are not the first babies born to this couple. Before this, they had another litter together. Apart from this, it is Dolly’s seventh litter overall. This makes her even more experienced.
For now, the babies are spending quality time with their mother in the den. As soon as they get a few weeks older and start exploring they will emerge out of the den in curiosity to explore more. The babies will surely take some times. Twin Red Panda births are extremely ʀᴀʀᴇ and keepers are delighted with the pair’s progress. The new arrivals are doubly welcome, as their parents are a key factor in the ongoing success of the European Eɴᴅᴀɴɢᴇʀᴇᴅ Species Programme for the Red Panda, due to their diverse genetics. Dolly is an amazing mother. There are no words to explain her motherhood. She has a lot of experience. She knows how to handle sᴛʀᴇssꜰᴜʟ situations without even showing it. These twines are lucky to have her as a mother. “Cubs don’t tend to start ᴠᴇɴᴛᴜʀɪɴɢ out on their own for the first three months, and Rufina, like all Red Panda mums, regularly moves the cubs to different nesting areas. This is perfectly natural behavior but makes keeping track of the babies, or even confirming what sex they are, somewhat problematic for us, although we are pretty sure both babies are female,” she added. Dolly and Spud were paired up through SPP. The sole reason is to help in increasing the red pandas population and spread awareness regarding this species.
In the wild, the Red Panda (Ailurus fulgens) inhabits the Himalayan mountains of China, India and Nepal, where they are ᴛʜʀᴇᴀᴛᴇɴᴇᴅ by habitat ᴅᴇsᴛʀᴜᴄᴛɪᴏɴ and ʜᴜɴᴛɪɴɢ. Red Pandas are solitary animals, and they only really ever come together to breed. As with the Giant Panda, female Red Pandas are only fertile for just one day a year and can delay implantation until conditions are favorable. They give birth to between one and four young at a time, and the cubs are born with pale fluffy fur, which darkens to the distinctive red coloration of the adults over the first three months.
While Dolly and Spud recently met a few lucky members of the public, the will be kept off display until they are a bit stronger. Zoo visitors can get a peak at the red panda cubs during their bottle feedings through the window of the zoo veterinary clinic. Strong red pandas are important since there are less than 10,000 red pandas left in the wild in their natural habitat of the Himalayan mountains.
