Posted on 03/15/2009 12:40:59 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Kolkata: A female red panda from New Zealand will soon join the red pandas at the Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park in Darjeeling district to balance the male-female ratio there.
Permission from the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) has come to bring it from the Auckland Zoo. In return, a male will be sent under an exchange programme.
“We are awaiting the animal quarantine certificate from the CZA, after which we can exchange the animals as per international red panda breeding programme rules,” A.K. Jha, Zoo Director, told The Hindu from Darjeeling on Thursday.
The male-female ratio there now is 11:3. Ideally it should be 3:2. Among the three females only one is suitable for mating.
“The zoo has a history of breeding red pandas successfully in captivity and we also release some of them to the wild,” he said. Four females were released at the Singalila National Park in 2003. Since the radio collars attached to them stopped functioning after few months, the authorities could not keep track of them.
Mr. Jha said the zoo plans to release two males into the wild.
I absolutely adore red pandas.
"... Sid and Carson, the Red Panda accountants from Price-Waterhouse.
Red pandas aren’t from Red China?
Red Pandas are from the Himalayas.
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