{"id":512394,"date":"2026-04-04T10:51:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T10:51:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/512394\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T10:51:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T10:51:23","slug":"highland-wildlife-park-welcomes-red-panda-to-newly-built-habitat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/512394\/","title":{"rendered":"Highland Wildlife Park welcomes red panda to newly built habitat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Highland Wildlife Park has welcomed the first resident into its new red panda habitat.<\/p>\n<p>Three-year-old Priya arrived at the park on Tuesday from Edinburgh Zoo.<\/p>\n<p>The arrival marks the long-awaited return of red pandas following the construction of a special habitat built especially for the species.<\/p>\n<p>Set on a wooded hillside, the habitat offers expansive views of the Cairngorms and features tall trees and climbing structures.<\/p>\n<p>Keepers will soon be welcoming a male red panda to join Priya, with the hope of successfully breeding the endangered species.<\/p>\n<p>Previous red panda residents, Kevyn and Kitty, were relocated to Edinburgh Zoo in 2022 during the construction of Scotland\u2019s Wildlife Discovery Centre.<\/p>\n<p>Michael Livingstone, carnivore team leader at Highland Wildlife Park, said: \u201cIt\u2019s always exciting to welcome a new animal, but even more so when they are as sweet and well-mannered as little Priya. I\u2019m excited to see our visitors fall in love with her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI used to look after Priya at Edinburgh Zoo, so I know her well. It\u2019s wonderful to be reunited and to see her enjoying a new home. The habitat is beautiful, with lots of trees, areas to explore and plenty of space for her to do as she pleases. She\u2019s going to be really happy here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>STV News is now on WhatsApp<\/p>\n<p>Get all the latest news from around the country<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whatsapp.com\/channel\/0029VaCESJzKgsNvKKNOYO2r\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">      Follow STV News <\/a>Follow STV News on WhatsApp<\/p>\n<p>Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country<\/p>\n<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/whatsapp-qr.png\" alt=\"WhatsApp channel QR Code\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Highland Wildlife Park has welcomed the first resident into its new red panda habitat. Three-year-old Priya arrived at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":512395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":{"0":"post-512394","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom","11":"tag-unitedkingdom","12":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/512395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}