First look at endangered red panda baby born in zoo

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By Elizabeth Hunter via SWNS

The first photos of an endangered red panda born at a British zoo have been released.

The female kit was born at Edinburgh Zoo in July and has just undergone her first health check by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland.

The nine-week-old panda, which is yet to be named, is healthy and well, according to keepers.

Visitors to the zoo will soon have the chance to spot the cub in her enclosure – along with her mum Ginger and dad Bruce.

Both Ginger and Bruce were born in 2016, with Bruce arriving at the zoo the same year, and Ginger following in 2017.

Red pandas are classed as endangered, with less than 10,000 thought to exist in the wild.

Their existence is threatened by poachers and the destruction of their habitat – with bamboo forests in the Eastern Himalayas making up around 50% of red panda habitat.

 

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