Red Panda Quadruplets Born

A Red Panda at the Giant Panda Breeding Research Base Chengdu, November 2010. Photo: Enricoroberto5, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A Red Panda has given birth to quadruplets at the Chengdu Research Base in China’s Sichuan Province.

The babies weigh 0.1 kg each and are doing well. As the Chinese news portal Global Times reports, there was already a quadruplet birth at the Chengdu Research Base in 1996. At that time, however, all the kittens died within a few days.

Quadruplets are extremely rare in Red Pandas. According to an analysis of data from the 2007 studbook, only 1% of all Red Panda births are quadruplets.

This year, a total of 18 cubs were born at Chengdu Research Base. It is home to 163 Red Pandas — the largest population in captivity.