Endangered forest creature welcomes twins at Tennessee zoo. See the adorable cubs
In a nesting box at a Tennessee zoo, two endangered cubs are spending their first days learning their new environment.
Red pandas Hazel and Itsuki welcomed two new cubs on June 13, the Memphis Zoo announced on Facebook on June 22.
“This is Hazel’s 3rd time having cubs; however, this is this pair’s first offspring together,” the zoo said. “Hazel is an excellent mother and has been very attentive and is providing constant care to her cubs.”
The zoo said Hazel and her cubs have spent all of their time in a nest box “nursing, grooming, and sleeping.”
The cubs are the zoo’s first red panda babies since 2015, and the first of their subspecies, the refulgens red panda, the zoo said.
“The refulgens subspecies is found in China and has a darker face and more distinguished rings on their tails,” the zoo said.
Red pandas are an endangered species, with fewer than 10,000 estimated in the wild, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
The animals were the first animals to be called “panda” when they were discovered before the giant panda, according to the Memphis Zoo.
“Red pandas, once thought to be related to giant pandas, are actually closer related to members of the raccoon family,” the zoo said.
Like the giant panda, red pandas live in the forests of China and eat bamboo. But the red pandas have a larger range, expanding into Nepal and Bhutan, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
Hazel and her new babies will spend their first months together in a nest box, and the zoo offers a live stream to take an inside look at the cubs.
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