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Three red pandas arrive at Seoul Grand Park

Published: 01 Dec. 2023, 14:47 Updated: 01 Dec. 2023, 16:38

LEE SOO-JUNG
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A male red panda from Saitama Children's Zoo Park in Japan [SEOUL GRAND PARK]

Seoul has welcomed three red pandas, also known as lesser pandas, to the city. The pandas are adorable, sporting orange-brown fur and kitten-like faces, as they prepare to make their public debut next year.

“Three red pandas from abroad are currently undergoing training to adjust into new environment after completing their routine quarantine,” Seoul Grand Park said on Friday.

“After having a long enough adaptation period, the lesser pandas will meet the public around March 2024 at their play yard.”

The park will host a naming contest for the red pandas in December. It also plans to showcase them settling into and adjusting to their new home via filmed YouTube videos.

Two of the three hail from the greater Tokyo area of Japan, while the other comes from Calgary, Canada.

A female red panda is from Tokyo's Tama Zoological Park in Japan, who was born in July 2020. [SEOUL GRAND PARK]

Seoul received the Japanese pair in May via its bilateral partnership with Tokyo's Tama Zoological Park. The female was born in that zoo in July 2020, while her male counterpart was born in Saitama Children's Zoo Park in July 2019.

The third red panda, also male, came to Seoul from the Calgary Zoo on Nov. 20 through its Species Survival Plan Program, which is managed by the U.S.-based Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

There are currently fewer than 10,000 living red pandas.

Relentless poaching and habitat loss due to livestock grazing and logging has significantly reduced their population.

Red pandas are designated as an internationally endangered species. They are thus banned from international commercial trade with an exception for licensed research cases, according to CITES Appendix I.

CITES is an abbreviation of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, an international agreement designed to protect threatened species from exploitative commercial practices.

A red panda from Calgary, Canada. [SEOUL GRAND PARK]

Seoul Grand Park will invite red panda professionals from the Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums who will share tips for about fostering red panda-friendly habitats, which can be benefit their reproduction.

Korean zookeepers will learn about red pandas' behavioral characteristics and nutritional needs.

“To save the endangered red panda population, the park will successfully carry out its breeding programs and roll out medium- and long-term species-management plans,” said Kim Jae-yong, the head of Seoul Grand Park.

Seoul Grand Park has been putting efforts and resources into the preservation and protection of endangered animals.

After becoming the first national Conservation Institution Outside Habitat in 2000, the park established a species-conservation center dedicated to endangered animals native to Korea. The park has been taking care of long-tailed gorals, Eurasian river otters and Asian black bears.

BY MOON HEE-CHUL, LEE SOO-JUNG [[email protected]]