By Shreya Jain
TORONTO (Reuters) -Paprika, a four-year-old red panda, gave birth to her first cub at the Toronto Zoo this month, making it the third endangered red panda birth at the zoo in 25 years, a spokesperson said on Friday.
The still unnamed cub arrived weighing 221 grams on July 13 and is healthy and under observation. The public will not get to see the newborn until early fall when the weather cools.
“Paprika was very calm when she was momentarily separated from him, taking the chance to stretch out and groom herself before returning to the nest box to bathe and attend to her cub,” the Toronto Zoo said in a tweet.
The cub will be kept in his own space and taken out only for regular veterinary checkups, said Toronto Zoo spokesperson Amy Naylor.
Paprika arrived at the zoo in November 2021 as a potential mate for male red panda Suva, recommended by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) Red Panda Species Survival Plan.
The bushy-tailed and russet-furred bamboo munchers dwell in high-altitude Asian forests. Their population is estimated by experts as anywhere between 2,500 and 10,000 but the species has declined by as much as 50% in the past 20 years, Naylor said.
The conservation status of red pandas was elevated to endangered by the International Union for Conservation and Nature in 2015.
(Reporting by Shreya Jain; Editing by Josie Kao)
