A red panda has provided birth to a cub at Darjeeling’s Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park, the biggest higher-altitude zoo in the nation. An official of the Darjeeling-based zoo mentioned that it was the birth of the fifth red panda at the park this season, and each the mother, Yeshi, and the child are carrying out fine. Officials are but to name the cub. The red panda, an endangered species, mostly a herbivore, predominantly likes cold climatic regions and practically 50 per cent of them are discovered in Eastern Himalayas.
News agency ANI shared pictures of the panda moving about in the zoological park and walking on a tree. One of the pictures also showed it sleeping inside its shelter.
West Bengal: A female red panda, Yeshi, gave birth to a cub at Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park in Darjeeling
“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
— ANI (@ANI) July 22, 2021
According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), a red panda has a bear-like body. Its belly and limbs are black. On the side of the head and above its tiny eyes, there are white markings. These animals are skillful and acrobatic and they largely remain on trees making use of their lengthy, bushy tails for balance. They also use the tail to cover themselves in winters.
The Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park is globally recognized for its conservation breeding programmes of red panda, snow leopards, Tibetan wolf and other extremely endangered animal species of Eastern Himalayas. It was established in 1958 with an aim to retain the ecological balance in the sensitive area.
In Sikkim, neighbouring West Bengal, the residents honour the red panda, who are beneath expanding threat from climate adjust and growing deforestation, which is top to a reduction in their organic habitat. There are now fewer than 10,000 left in the wild, according to WWF. Poaching is a different huge threat to the pandas, who are killed for their distinctive fur in China and Myanmar.
It is believed that pandas got their name from the Nepali word “ponya”, which suggests bamboo or plant-consuming animal.