{"id":626652,"date":"2026-09-16T17:52:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T17:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/626652\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T17:52:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T17:52:12","slug":"red-panda-cubs-born-at-fota-wildlife-park-venture-out-at-dusk-in-further-boost-to-conservation-scheme-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/626652\/","title":{"rendered":"Red panda cubs born at Fota Wildlife Park venture out at dusk in further boost to conservation scheme \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Red pandas are facing a significant threat in the wild but members of the public are now invited to play their part in the conservation process by naming two cubs born at Cork<\/a>\u2019s Fota Wildlife Park<\/a> ahead of International Red Panda Day on Saturday.<\/p>\n

According to Fota Wildlife Park lead ranger John Leahy, red pandas \u2013 which, despite their name, are closer to raccoons and coatimundis rather than the Giant Panda \u2013 are among the species included on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List.<\/p>\n

\u201cRed pandas are native to the temperate forests of the Himalayas but have a range extending from western Nepal<\/a> through Bhutan, northern Myanmar<\/a>, and into southern and central China<\/a>, and it\u2019s estimated that between 2,500 and 10,000 mature individuals remain in their natural habitat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leahy said Fota Wildlife Park participates in an endangered species breeding programme for red pandas and has an established breeding pair consisting of mother, Laxmi, and father, Grga, with the pair of new arrivals making their entrance to the world in June<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough the cubs were born back in June, they have spent these early months sleeping, resting and feeding, with their mother Laxmi taking great care of them. At the moment they generally do not go out during the day, but they have been venturing out at dusk when the Wildlife Park is closed.<\/p>\n

\"DespiteDespite their name, red pandas are closer to raccoons and coatimundis than the Giant Panda. Photograph: Michael O’Sullivan\/OSM Photography<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are now over three months old, so we expect to see them becoming much more active during the daytime in the coming weeks. They may still be quite small, but they already look like fully formed little red pandas. It is fantastic to see them developing so well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leahy said the cubs\u2019 mother came to Fota from Longleat Safari in England in July 2019, while their father arrived from Zagreb Zoo, Croatia in June 2019. Both are eight years old and coping well with parenthood.<\/p>\n

\u201cLaxmi is a very experienced mother and has a very calm temperament which lends well to her having relaxed cubs, while Grga is no stranger to fatherhood \u2013 this is fourth set of cubs that he has fathered at Fota Wildlife Park as part of the endangered species breeding programme.\u201d<\/p>\n

Red pandas are primarily herbivorous, with bamboo shoots making up the bulk of their diet. At Fota the red pandas are provided with fresh, locally grown bamboo harvested from the park itself where it flourishes in the mild Cork climate.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Hosepipe ban lifted with \u2018immediate effect\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

To celebrate International Red Panda Day on Saturday, September 19th, Fota Wildlife Park is inviting visitors to help choose names for the red panda cubs in keeping with the species native range and cultural heritage. <\/p>\n

A suggestion box is now open in the Serengeti Shop at the park, where visitors can submit their name ideas for the twins and be in with a chance to win one of two Conservation annual passes. The naming competition will close on October 11th.<\/p>\n

The red panda cubs join a succession of births over the past few months at the park, including Asian lion cubs, Sumatran tiger cubs, a Nubian giraffe calf, an Indian rhino calf, two European bison and two Kafue lechwe calves, and a white-tailed sea eagle chick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Red pandas are facing a significant threat in the wild but members of the public are now invited…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[114,46,61,60,31513,3738,9419,82,263],"class_list":["post-626652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-china","tag-cork","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-myanmar","tag-nature","tag-nepal","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}