Zhin-Li frolics around his exhibit with his mother Mei-Li on a rainy day.
Zhin is the slightly smaller panda with the lighter tail tip...at one point in the video,
he comes to check out my shoe then gets scared and runs away!
Zhin-Li, Binghamton Zoo's baby red panda, is leaving the zoo this winter. Zhin-Li is now six months old and fully weaned; he eats a separate diet of leaf-eater biscuits, bamboo, and apples, just like his mom, and he easily motors all around his exhibit. He still prefers to hang out with his mother, Mei-Li, but is spending more and more time exploring on his own. We are still not planning to introduce him to Xiao-Li, his father, because male red pandas rarely interact with their young in the wild.
Red pandas in the wild are typically solitary, and fully weaned around six months of age, but the cubs tend to stay with the mother until the following summer when more cubs are born. However, the Binghamton Zoo does not have enough room to house an adolescent Zhin-Li, adults Mei-Li and Xiao-Li, and more cubs. Sending Zhin-Li to another zoo allows us to reintroduce Mei and Xiao and hopefully breed them again this spring.
Red pandas are part of a green species survival program (SSP) through AZA-accredited zoos. This means that the captive red panda population is sustainable over time and has a total size greater than 50 individuals. Additionally, the population has a growth rate that is able to maintain 90% of its genetic diversity for over 100 years. As a result, it is important that we breed Mei-Li and Xiao-Li at least one more time to increase their representation in the captive red panda gene pool. And when Zhin-Li is old enough (anywhere between 18 months and three years), he will be bred to a female to propagate his own genes in the population.
So for the time being, our stuffed animal-sized baby will move to the Erie Zoo in Pennsylvania to start a new adventure as an adult panda. Good luck, Zhin-Li!
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