Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park in Darjeeling, India, celebrates the birth of six Red Pandas within a year – a record for the zoo, reports the Indian daily Telegraph.
The mothers are Sunita (4), Prasanna (7) and Karma, who still provided for offspring at the age of 12.
Into the wild
The sex of the cubs could not yet be determined. Including the six babies, there are currently 29 Red Pandas living in Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park. Three of them are to be released into the wild this year, following the Red Pandas Smile, Shifu, Noel and Yeshe, which were already released into the wild in spring.
Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park is specialized in animal species native to the Eastern Himalayan region. In addition to the breeding program for Red Pandas, the zoo also runs ones for snow leopards and Tibetan wolves.
There were also births of Red Pandas elsewhere in the Northern Hemisphere recently. An overview of the latest zoo births can be found here.