Athens, red panda cub born at the zoo. Photo

THE EVENT

• A red panda was born in the Attica Zoological Park in Spata, east of Athens. Antonis Balas, the park’s keeper, introduced the unnamed two-month-old baby panda to zoo visitors

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THE BIRTH

• Small mammal Native to the Himalayas and southwestern China, the red panda is not closely related to the better-known giant panda

London Zoo’s annual animal weigh-in. PHOTO

VERY HIGH RISK OF EXTINCTION

• According to the International Union for Nature Conservationthe red panda is at very high risk of extinction due to habitat loss

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TWO SUBSPECIES

• They are recognized two subspecies: The Himalayan red panda lives in the western part of the red panda’s range, particularly in Nepal, Assam, Sikkim and Bhutan

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THE SECOND

• The Chinese red panda, lives in northern Myanmar and southern China. It is supposedly larger and darker in color than the Himalayan red panda

HABITAT

• In the 1970s, traces of red pandas were found in the Dhorpatan Game Reserve in Nepal. Their presence was confirmed in the spring of 2007 when four red pandas were spotted at altitudes between 3,220 and 3,610 meters

WHERE DOES HE LIVE

• The red panda it lives between 2,200 and 4,800 meters above sea level, in areas with moderate temperatures between 10 and 35 °C with little annual variation. It prefers mountainous areas with both coniferous and deciduous forests and undergrowth rich in bamboo

WHAT DOES IT EAT

• It feeds mainly on bamboobut also of fruit, leaves, roots and occasionally insects and small vertebrates