International Red Panda Day: 17 Sept 2011

On Saturday, September 17th 2011 the Welsh Mountain Zoo – National Zoo of Wales will be among one of the many wildlife conservation organisations around the world celebrating International Red Panda Day (IRPD). IRPD was created by the Red Panda Network to raise awareness of the Red Panda and to support conservation efforts in Nepal [...]

Posted in: Events
Posted on 14th Sep 2011

IRPD was created by the Red Panda Network to raise awareness of the Red Panda and to support conservation efforts in Nepal and China. The Red Panda Network saves wild Red Pandas and preserves their habitat through the empowerment of local communities by adaptive community-based research, education, and carbon mitigation. Last year the network raised over £3,000 to support the protection of 3% of Nepal’s Red Panda population.

Although the Red Panda and its habitat are endangered mainly due to livestock grazing, creation of agriculture fields and grazing pastures, firewood and fodder collection and road building, Red Panda are also known to be hunted for their beautiful skins and tails because their colour is auspicious in some regions of their range.

A Male Red Panda holds residency at the Welsh Mountain Zoo. Ming Ming was born at Chester Zoo in 2007 and moved to Birmingham Nature Centre shortly after. He arrived at the Welsh Mountain Zoo in March last year and quickly settled into his enclosure with our family of Asian Short Clawed Otters.

At the Zoo we will be showing our support by holding a number of exciting activities for visitors to get involved in. At 2pm there will be an opportunity for visitors to hear some interesting facts and learn more about the Red Pandas we have at the Zoo, during a ‘meet the Keeper’ talk. As well as this, there will be craft activities in the media centre where visitors can colour their own Red Panda masks. A Poster Presentation will also be on display at the Red Pandas enclosure highlighting the importance of the species and their conservation.

Red Panda Keeper Tom Lawrence said,
“I think International Red Panda Day is a great way to raise awareness and educate people about this endangered species. It is important to remember that Red Pandas face numerous dangers and threats to their habitat in the wild and therefore the work that the Red Panda Network are carrying out to aid conservation in Nepal is tremendous.”