We're delighted to welcome Sundar, a one-year-old male Red Panda, who has travelled to the capital from Auckland Zoo to join the international conservation breeding programme for the endangered species.
We’re thrilled to have Sundar here as a mate for Khusi, our young female, and this confident young Panda has a very laidback nature.
He’s been settling in really well, and having a great time exploring his surroundings and getting to know his new housemate. We slowly introduced them to each other and you can now see them outside together in the Red Panda habitat, next door to Ishah and Manasa!
We've got high hopes that Sundar and Khusi will continue to get on well. Our current main focus is making sure they’re comfortable in their new habitat, and if all goes well we’ll look at pairing them up for the 2017 breeding season.
The conservation breeding programme is really important, especially as the conservation risk for Red Pandas was recently upgraded by the IUCN from vulnerable to endangered due to their dwindling numbers in the wild.
Good zoos around the world work together for the conservation of endangered species like Red Pandas through global and regional conservation breeding programmes. Conservation breeding programmes help to maintain healthy populations, build knowledge of good animal husbandry, and provide care and support for wild conservation projects.
