Fota Wildlife Park Unveils Three Red Panda Cubs Today - And Is Looking For Names!

Fota Wildlife Park today unveiled three Red panda cubs (Ailurus fulgens fulgens) born to mother Laxmi aged 5 and father Grga aged 5.

The three cubs (one male and two female) were born on the 9^th of June and have spent the past few weeks in their nesting box in the Asian Sanctuary at Fota Wildlife Park, sleeping, feeding, and being nursed by their mother.  In the next two to three weeks, the cubs will start to venture outside their nesting box for brief periods in early morning or late evening under the watchful eye of their mother Laxmi.

The fulgens subspecies of the Red panda is critically endangered, it is thought that there may be as few as 2,500 mature individuals remaining in the wild. Recent estimates suggest that there has been a 50% decrease in numbers over the last 20 years alone.  The successful birth of the Red panda cubs at Fota highlights the importance of Fota Wildlife Park’s participation in the international breeding programme for many species that are endangered or threatened in the wild.

The cubs’ mother Laxmi came to Fota Wildlife Park from Longleat in England in July 2019 while their father Grga came to Fota Wildlife Park from Zagreb Zoo, Croatia in June 2019. Fota Wildlife Park is now home to seven Red pandas who live in a specially designed habitat in the Asian Sanctuary. The only species of its kind in the world, the Red panda is closely related to Racoons and Coatimundis. The Red panda has long soft brownish fur with black and white marking and piercing black eyes. Its diet is mainly of bamboo and Fota Wildlife Park feeds its panda’s with its own bamboo grown within the park.

Fota Wildlife Park are calling on the public to name the three baby pandas. Enter your suggestion onto the blog page on www.fotawildlife.ie/blog and be in with a chance to win one of three yearlong conservation passes to Fota.

 The Red panda cubs join a succession of births the past few months at Fota Wildlife Park including cheetah cubs, baby ring tailed lemurs, baby black and white colobus monkeys, a bison and giraffe calf.