Seattle zoo to debut twin red panda cubs

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, November 14, 2018

Seattle zoo to debut twin red panda cubs
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Seattle zoo to debut twin red panda cubs
Twin red panda cubs Zeya, right, and her sister Ila, center, look out from a perch in their temporary outdoor enclosure with mom, Hazel, during a media preview of the animals at the Woodland Park Zoo on Wednesday in Seattle.

Associated Press

SEATTLE — Visitors to Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo will soon be able to view twin red panda cubs, the results of the first successful birth of the animals there in nearly three decades.

The zoo plans to introduce the cubs at a public outdoor exhibit opening Nov. 23.

Sisters Zeya and Ila have been living in an indoor, climate-controlled area with their mom, Hazel, since they were born in June.

Zoo officials say the cubs have been climbing trees, hanging out in a high hammock and developing other motor skills.

Red pandas are endangered, and fewer than 10,000 remain in the bamboo forests of China, the Himalayas and Myanmar.

Hazel was brought to the zoo two years ago as part of a conservation breeding program.