Red panda cub found dead at Atascadero zoo
The birth of twin red panda cubs was welcomed by the Atascadero Zoo last June.
Last Saturday morning, March 1, zookeepers making their morning rounds found one their beloved red panda cubs dead in its nest box at the Charles Paddock Zoo in Atascadero.
The adolescent red panda’s death was unexpected. “They all appeared to be completely normal,” says Kate Capela, the zoo’s animal collections manager. A physical inspection of the dead red panda did not reveal anything unusual, she said. A full necropsy will be conducted to try to determine the cause of death, she said.
The cub’s twin brother, mother and father were all doing fine, Capela said. They were born at the zoo last summer in June.
The births were the first at the zoo’s new red panda exhibit. The red panda program was created with a $100,000 gift in 2011.
Red pandas are small, tree-dwelling mammals native to the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China. Their wild population is estimated at less than 10,000 mature animals, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The population continues to decline and is threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation, poaching, and inbreeding depression, although red pandas are protected by national laws in their range countries.
It is slightly larger than a domestic cat. It has reddish-brown fur, a long, shaggy tail, and a waddling gait due to its shorter front legs. It feeds mainly on bamboo, but is omnivorous and also eats eggs, birds, insects, and small mammals. It is a solitary animal, mainly active from dusk to dawn, and is largely sedentary during the day.
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