{"id":898645,"date":"2026-10-29T10:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T10:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/898645\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T10:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T10:44:10","slug":"meet-shanti-and-cinder-the-smithsonians-newly-named-red-panda-twins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/898645\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Shanti and Cinder, the Smithsonian\u2019s newly named red panda twins"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>FRONT ROYAL, Va. (7News) \u2014 The Smithsonian\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/wjla.com\/topic\/National%20Zoo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">National Zoo<\/a> and Conservation Biology Institute has named its <a href=\"https:\/\/wjla.com\/topic\/Red Panda\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">red panda<\/a> twins Shanti and Cinder, honoring a conservation worker in Nepal and highlighting the male cub\u2019s reddish-brown coloring.<\/p>\n<p>RELATED | <a href=\"https:\/\/wjla.com\/news\/local\/red-panda-cub-named-dolly-after-more-than-20000-votes-zoological-park-conservation-biology-institute\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">National Zoo&#8217;s Red panda cub named Dolly after more than 20,000 votes<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The twins were born May 29 to parents Sequoia and Mow Mow at the Smithsonian\u2019s conservation campus in Front Royal, Virginia.<\/p>\n<p>The female cub, Shanti, was named for Shanti Malla, whom the Smithsonian identified as the first female forest guardian in western Nepal. Her work includes monitoring wild red pandas, educating communities, investigating poaching and protecting forests.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe protect forests and wildlife for our children,\u201d Malla said in the Smithsonian\u2019s announcement. \u201cIf there are no trees, there is no life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cinder got his name from his coloring. The Smithsonian described him as less fiery than his cub sibling, Dolly, and less protective than his twin, Shanti.<\/p>\n<p>The Smithsonian\u2019s Council helped select the names, according to the announcement.<\/p>\n<p>RELATED | <a href=\"https:\/\/wjla.com\/news\/local\/baby-red-panda-international-red-panda-day-national-zoo-smithsonian-conservation-biology-institutem-fluffy-cute-animals-endagered-species-what-to-do-in-dc-holiday\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">LOOK: Baby red panda celebrates International Red Panda Day<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The twins were born at the Front Royal campus, which is closed to the public, rather than at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRONT ROYAL, Va. (7News) \u2014 The Smithsonian\u2019s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute has named its red panda&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":898646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-898645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=898645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/898646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}