Twin red panda cubs born at Chester Zoo have been described as “wonderful” by keepers.
The cubs, a boy and a girl, were born on June 22 to mum Nima and dad Koda, and have just had their first health check-up at the centre.
Specialist vets and keepers gave the young red pandas a clean bill of health after they were both weighed, sexed and vaccinated.
Announcing the news on Twitter, Chester Zoo said: “Red panda twins born! These crazy-cute cubs have been revealed as a boy and a girl during their very first health check-up!”
James Andrewes, assistant team manager at the zoo, said: “These red panda twins are wonderful, important new additions to the carefully managed breeding programme for the species, which is working to increase the safety-net population in Europe as numbers in the wild continue to decline.
“Happily, both cubs are developing very well indeed and the health MOTs we’ve been able to perform confirmed that mum Nima is clearly doing a great job of caring for them.
“Nima took them straight back to her nest and it’ll be a few weeks now until the cubs start to develop the confidence to come out and explore by themselves.”
Native to the mountainous regions of Nepal, India, Bhutan, Burma and southern China, it is estimated that fewer than 10,000 red pandas remain in the wild.
