Three red panda cubs were born this summer at the Smithsonian National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute’s campus in Front Royal, Virginia, giving keepers a cautiously optimistic start after last year’s litters largely didn’t survive.
Three-year-old Sequoia and 12-year-old Mow Mow welcomed twin cubs, one male and one female, on May 29. Less than two weeks later, on June 11, 3-year-old Keahi gave birth to a single female cub sired by 7-year-old Rocket. “The cubs are really just balls of fur that eat and sleep right now,” said Jessica Kordell, assistant curator of carnivores, in comments shared by the zoo.
Both pairs have had cubs before, with mixed results. Sequoia and Mow Mow’s litter last year produced two cubs, neither of which survived. Keahi and Rocket had two cubs last year as well; only one, a female named Kuna, made it. Low cub survival is common enough in the species that keepers built in extra precautions this time around. “Having both dams being relatively inexperienced moms, we knew going into it there could be challenges,” Kordell said. “This year, we moved the pandas into their air-conditioned, indoor spaces before we had too many hot days. Keeping their natural behaviors in mind, we also elevated the nest boxes off the ground, in hopes of reducing stress on the dams.”
To limit disturbance to the mothers, called dams, staff are tracking the cubs’ progress through cameras mounted inside the nest boxes rather than through direct handling. Male red pandas play no role in raising cubs, so the work of keeping the new arrivals alive falls entirely to Sequoia and Keahi.
Red pandas are classified as an endangered species, and the Smithsonian has run one of the more established breeding programs for them, with more than 100 cubs born across its facilities since 1962. Despite the name, red pandas aren’t closely related to giant pandas; they’re the only living members of the family Ailuridae, and their closest living relatives are actually raccoons and skunks, according to the zoo’s own species information.
The new cubs are staying at the Front Royal campus, which is closed to the public, and it’s not yet clear whether any of them will eventually move to the National Zoo’s exhibit in Washington, D.C. Kuna, last year’s surviving cub, has remained at Front Royal with her mother rather than moving to the district. Visitors hoping to see a red panda in person can currently do so at the National Zoo’s Asia Trail exhibit, home to adult female Asa and another red panda, Chris-Anne.
