🔴 ZOO2U LIVE: Red Pandas!

I'm going to tell you a little bit about our lovely red pandas. So first of all, this here is Nampang. Nampang is three years old and he's lived here since he was about ten months old. He was born in the Highland Wildlife Park in Scotland And he came to live with us as part of the European breeding program. And just joining us is our lovely female, Tilly. Tilly is much older than him, she's nine years old And she's also lived here since she was about ten months old too. So she's lived here for quite a number of years now. So red pandas are incredibly unique animals. They're actually the only living species in their family, which is the Aelioridae. There are two species of red panda, which has actually only been really decided and discovered about earlier this year, so we're still learning a lot about them. So red pandas have no real close relatives. People often confuse them, sort of lump them in with giant pandas. But the word panda is basically thought to be a mispronunciation of the word ponya, Which is a word that means bamboo eater. So red pandas were actually discovered and named the ponya or panda 48 years before anyone discovered the giant panda. So people often look at these and we might hear comments like they don't look like real pandas. And my favorite thing to tell everyone is that technically they are the real panda as they were first named. But as I said, they're in a different family to giant pandas. So the closest thing that red pandas are related to is the animals that belong to the raccoon family. So thank you all for joining us so far. I'm Cam and we're joined by the lovely Amy. So a couple of things, we have a JustGiving page at the minute It's called the Animal Support Fund and we're actually raising funds and donations that go towards our animals here at the park. Another thing, if you find yourself looking for something to watch in lockdown, We have a series on CBBC called Onesie Free if you want to check it out on BBC iPlayer. So what I'm feeding these two this afternoon is just a little bit of fruit. We feed both our red pandas a small amount of fruit every day But fruit only makes up a very small part of their diet from where they would live in the wild. So we have to be careful not to give them too much fruit. They do have a bit of a sweet tooth but if we give them too much, it would be bad for their teeth. So in the wild, red pandas would eat a lot of bamboo. It would make up about 98% of their diet and that can mean they actually need to eat around 20,000 leaves every single day. Now that's a huge amount of bamboo but bamboo is actually very low in energy and very low in nutrients so that's why they need to eat a large amount of it. So red pandas don't do much because they do have to spend most of their time resting. We don't like to call them lazy, it's just being very energy efficient. Because they eat such food that is low in energy, they have to save their energy as best they can so they have it when they need it. So they actually rest for about 18 hours a day. So seeing them up and having a lovely walk around their enclosure like they are now They are amazing climbers. As they're nice and close now, you might be able to see They have very, very sharp jaws. Their claws they use for climbing so they can grab onto little little branches. Everything about their body is basically perfectly adapted to be able to climb very well. They have quite long bodies, long tails that they use for balance And they also have ankles that can twist around so they can climb vertically head first or down. They also have surprisingly amazing camouflage when they are in their native range. They are found in the foothills of the Himalayas, so there are five different countries They are native to all over that region and they live in the bamboo forest where it's very humid all the time, it rains a lot and there's also a lot of low-lying clouds So there's a lot of red moss growing on the branches. So even though here they look to us to be a very vivid color They actually camouflage themselves amazingly well in their native habitat. Just showing off his amazing climbing skills right there. So the main predators for red pandas would be leopards and bears But unfortunately it's really humans that are causing red pandas to be an endangered species. No one knows exactly how many red pandas remain in the wild today. They're a very secretive and elusive species. We know that it's definitely under about 10,000 animals And again this is spread over five different countries, it's quite a wide range But it could be as low as around 2,000. So we really need to work to protect them. I just want to quickly say thank you all for joining so far. This is Nampang and we have Silly right there just looking over, getting grumpy that Nampang is eating all the food. Don't forget that we do have our Just Giving page up and running which we are kindly asking for donations to support our animals here at the park While we're in our second lockdown and if you're looking for something to watch on TV Head to iPlayer, CBC iPlayer and you can check out CBC's One Zoo Free Which shows the amazing work we do here at the park and also our conservation work around the world. So as I said the main threat to these guys in the wild They live in very remote regions. where the people who live in the communities in these areas have no choice But to get all their resources basically from the forest around them So even though they don't want to do any harm to the animals they basically The main reason people have to cut back on The trees are just for firewood. We're sending a donation to a wonderful organization called the Red Panda Network. So we suggest you look them up if you haven't heard of them before. They're doing amazing things to help basically local people living in these rural The main initiative is to install more efficient stove into people's houses and that can literally halve the amount of firewood That a house needs to collect every year so that saves a huge amount of forest And it also helps people because they don't have to go out and chop firewood every day. And it also improves their health because they have less smoke in their house. So they really do amazing work and they're finding more red pandas In the forest where the Red Panda Network operates there have never been more So we have a couple of questions. Tilly, could you explain about her tail? Tilly, as I said she's 9 years old, she's lived here practically her whole life She came to us from the zoo when she was born in France. She used to have a beautiful tail and unfortunately About a year and a half ago now she's started losing fur on her tail They do this to some extent during the summer to help keep them cool But she lost all her fur which is very unusual Our vet basically, we eventually found out she had a problem with her blood flow so essentially the blood is not flowing to her tail properly And this actually started to cause the tip of her tail to die off so we actually had to amputate half her tail but animals are amazingly adaptable And even the day after the operation she was climbing around the tree as if Her tail had always been like that for her whole life and she hasn't had any other related health problems since So it doesn't cause her any problems and we seem to have solved it now But it's still a death debate. A couple of things you can do here at Paradise is actually meet Tilly and Nampang with our animal experiences, so if you head to our website you can do that It's a great gift, if you're looking for Christmas gift ideas. You can also adopt Tilly and Nampang so again head to our website And make another great Christmas present And Nampang is just above us, climbing and sled marking So we're actually heading into the red panda breeding season now The red panda breeding season lasts from about the end of December to about mid-March But they'll only be receptive to mating for a couple of weeks during that period. In their native range, red pandas are solitary animals So males and females wouldn't actually live together year round These two do and they are absolutely, Tilly definitely wears the pants in this relationship So normally she just tells him off, he wanted to go that way She'll stare at him and that'll be fine. 99% of the time they get along just fine and they basically ignore each other They kind of just pretend the other one doesn't exist. But we're starting to see a few more interactions with them as we get closer to the breeding season. So what we're really hoping will happen is over the next few weeks They'll start following each other a little more, being a little more active We might even hear them vocalising towards each other which will be really exciting And if they do successfully mate this year or this season, Tilly would be getting ready to give birth in around between June and July next summer Now that's when all red pandas always have their cubs Tilly has been a mother before, she's had two litters of cubs here with us successfully But with a different male as the father So we're hopeful that these two will be just as successful as Tilly and Teagan were And we may have more cubs here next year. Amazing, thank you so much Amy So thank you to everyone who joined the live stream, this is unfortunately the end of it But you can catch us with Zoo to You live streams all through this second lockdown On Saturday we actually go live with our world of dinosaurs With Ty and Cam, if you're looking for something to watch as well this lockdown Please head to the BBC iPlayer, you can check out CBBC's 1Z3 which shows the work we do here on site and also conservation around the world And if you're looking for any Christmas gifts you can do animal adoptions and animal experiences Here at the park, and finally if you'd like to donate If you enjoyed the live stream, please head to our JustGiving page, the animal support fund And you can donate there, so thank you so much everyone Time to say goodbye, Tilly and Namthang and goodbye Amy, thank you, goodbye