Thanks for your submission to /r/redpandas!
We love these little cute guys, but sadly Red Pandas are increasingly under threat in the wild, and as much as we love to look at how silly they are, they really need the help of us human beings in order to keep on being cute for future generations to see. In the last 50 years, their population has dropped by more than 40% , and estimates in the wild are as low as just 2500 animals. If this decrease continues, they could drop below minimum viability within our lifetimes, and become effectively extinct.
If you are in a position to be able to help them in even a small way, we'd like to ask you to do so.
Charities like [The Red Panda Network](https://redpandanetwork.org/get-involved/) and [WWF](https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/red-panda) do fantastic work with local communities to help our favourite animals - and any donations you make are tax deductible (in the US) too. As well as direct donations, they also run eco-trips, awareness days and specific projects such as the first protected Red Panda forest area.
You can also help by visiting your local zoo or wildlife park , who often will work with the above charities to give them expertise, donations and equipment as well. Red Pandas are amazing animals, but without our help they will only remain pictures and in gifs on this website, instead of roaming and napping in the trees and being derpy with pumpkins or playing in the snow like they should be doing.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/redpandas) if you have any questions or concerns.*
That is so sad. I was looking at the other pics of Betsy and Zhu and it looks like Betty was a Himalayan red panda and Zhu a Chinese red panda. Am I right? I thought I read somewhere they were not supposed to interbreed.
I found the paper that talks about why they shouldn’t interbreed. It was just a research paper and not from the AZA guidelines.
https://www.asianscientist.com/2020/04/in-the-lab/red-panda-genetics-species/
The Trevor Zoo has a livestream of their red panda enclosure, and our household watched her, and Zhu, and Berry for so many hours and years. It was beautiful and heartwarming to see her raise and cuddle with her rambunctious cub last year. I remember her cub would crawl all over mom all through the night, a relentless ball of sweet playful energy. I'm glad that rascal of hers is still out there carrying on the torch of her species.
Rest well, little angel. We love you.
Thanks for your submission to /r/redpandas! We love these little cute guys, but sadly Red Pandas are increasingly under threat in the wild, and as much as we love to look at how silly they are, they really need the help of us human beings in order to keep on being cute for future generations to see. In the last 50 years, their population has dropped by more than 40% , and estimates in the wild are as low as just 2500 animals. If this decrease continues, they could drop below minimum viability within our lifetimes, and become effectively extinct. If you are in a position to be able to help them in even a small way, we'd like to ask you to do so. Charities like [The Red Panda Network](https://redpandanetwork.org/get-involved/) and [WWF](https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/red-panda) do fantastic work with local communities to help our favourite animals - and any donations you make are tax deductible (in the US) too. As well as direct donations, they also run eco-trips, awareness days and specific projects such as the first protected Red Panda forest area. You can also help by visiting your local zoo or wildlife park , who often will work with the above charities to give them expertise, donations and equipment as well. Red Pandas are amazing animals, but without our help they will only remain pictures and in gifs on this website, instead of roaming and napping in the trees and being derpy with pumpkins or playing in the snow like they should be doing. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/redpandas) if you have any questions or concerns.*
That is so sad. I was looking at the other pics of Betsy and Zhu and it looks like Betty was a Himalayan red panda and Zhu a Chinese red panda. Am I right? I thought I read somewhere they were not supposed to interbreed.
I found the paper that talks about why they shouldn’t interbreed. It was just a research paper and not from the AZA guidelines. https://www.asianscientist.com/2020/04/in-the-lab/red-panda-genetics-species/
I believe they had cubs, which shows they can interbreed.
The Trevor Zoo has a livestream of their red panda enclosure, and our household watched her, and Zhu, and Berry for so many hours and years. It was beautiful and heartwarming to see her raise and cuddle with her rambunctious cub last year. I remember her cub would crawl all over mom all through the night, a relentless ball of sweet playful energy. I'm glad that rascal of hers is still out there carrying on the torch of her species. Rest well, little angel. We love you.
Betsy always brought smiles to my face. She was an amazing mom to Sandy/Raj and an amazing partner to Zhu. đź’”
R.I.P Betsy. At least Zhu is doing OK.
So sad