Here's your "awww" for the day: two newborn red pandas, rejected by their mother, have found a surrogate mom in a friendly dog, who's nursing the cubs as her own.

The red pandas were born at the Taiyuan Zoo in China's Shanxi province June 25, and were immediately rejected by their mother as a large crowd of zoo visitors looked on, Xinhua News Service reported.

Zoo staff quickly began the search for a surrogate, and chose the dog from among three canine candidates.

"It's good-natured and has sufficient milk. The baby bears seem to like it, too," zoo staffer Ha Guojiang told Xinhua.

Unfortunately, being a surrogate has caused the dog to refuse to nurse her own newborn puppy, but Ha has taken over feeding the pup.

Red pandas, also called lesser pandas, are furry, tree-dwelling, raccoon-like mammals that are a protected species in China, like their black-and-white Giant Panda relatives.

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Red Panda to be breed in Sikkim

ANI Mon, Jun 8 11:35 AM

Gangtok, June 8 (ANI): Keen to save one of nature's rarest and most beautiful animals, the Red Panda, the Sikkim Himalayan Zoological Park (SHZP), in Gangtok, has embarked on a breeding and conservation programme.

The red panda (Ailurus Fulgens) is the state animal of Sikkim, found in six protected areas of the state.

This animal is facing extinction due to habitat loss caused by construction activity and over grazing.

The zoo has been working on the programme since 1997 following the arrival of a pair of red panda at Gangtok Zoo from the Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park (PNHZP), in Darjeeling.

"Red Panda's being the state animal of Sikkim, and also an endangered species of global importance, so high precautions have been taken for the conservation of these Red Pandas in the Himalayan Zoological Park. The Forest Department of the Government of Sikkim is effortlessly trying to save these pandas in the wild as well as in the captive condition. After breeding here in the Himalayan Zoological Park, we are going to release them in their natural habitat," said Madan K.S. Shankar, Deputy Director, Zoo and Wildlife, SHZP.

The zoo has obtained four pandas, two pairs from the wild as part of the breeding programme. One of the female panda has started to prepare her bedding, in anticipation of delivering her cubs.

The SHZP aims to collect a gene pool from the wild population.

"We have paired both the male and the female from the wild. So, in the coming days, whatever offspring's we have, we will have captive breed from the wild population," added Shankar.

The zoological park aims to restock panda habitats.

The SHZP has already been identified as the most promising zoo for the red panda conservation programme, as it is favourably located next to a panda habitat containing the animal's staple diet bamboo.

Climatically, the zoo is suitable for red pandas giving hope to forest officials. By Tashi Pradhan (ANI)

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Red Panda: Wanted Dead or Alive

Nearly complete skeleton of fossil red panda discovered at ETSU Gray Fossil Site is only one in the world and

‘the find of a lifetime!’

By Kristn Clark Fry/gfsm

February 19, 2008

JOHNSON CITY – Additional funding provided for essential laboratory and field personnel at the new East Tennessee State University and General Shale Brick Natural History Museum and Visitor Center at the Gray Fossil Site has already paid off with a significant one-of-a-kind find -- a nearly complete skeleton of the fossil red panda (Pristinailurus bristoli).

“It’s the find of a lifetime!” says Dr. Steven Wallace, director of the ETSU Don Sundquist Center of Excellence in Paleontology which has research labs and offices in the museum.

“The public response to the opening of the Natural History Museum has been overwhelming,” says ETSU Provost Dr. Bert C. Bach. “And, ETSU is committed to supporting the museum’s needs.”

Though digging continues on the rare skeleton, already recovered material includes: the skull and jaws; both front limbs (complete with “panda’s thumb”); several neck as well as trunk vertebrae; ribs; most of the left half of the pelvis; portions of the left hind leg and foot; and three tail vertebrae.

Wallace notes that this specimen represents “the only fossil red panda skeleton ever found in the world and just the second skull.” A partial skull of Parailurus anglicus from Romania was reported by Max Schlosser in 1899. Although the new skull is heavily crushed, Wallace says 3-D reconstruction seems highly possible based on its good preservation.

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Red Panda leaves her island home

Maggie is part of the European Breeding Scheme

A two-year-old Red Panda that "touched the hearts of local visitors" has left her home on the Isle of Man.

Maggie, who was orphaned when she was just one-month-old, has arrived at the Whipsnade Zoo in Luton so she can be paired off for breeding purposes.

Hand-reared by a keeper at Curraghs Wildlife Park on the island, her only family have been the staff at the animal sanctuary.

Wildlife park owner, Nick Pinter said she made a "big impact on the park".

The panda, one of just 30,000 worldwide, was orphaned when her mother died of bone cancer just over two years ago.

Endangered species

Maggie attracted visitors from across the world, who watched as she followed her keeper around the park.

Mr Pinter said: "She is part of the European Breeding Programme which is aimed at stopping these pandas from going extinct.

"She was born here, after her mother who came from Nepal gave birth to her two years ago.

"Many local people would visit the park time and time again, she had touched their hearts.

"Maggie will be used for breeding in Luton, this is the prime age for her."

The Red Panda is currently listed as an endangered species because its natural habitat are rainforests which are rapidly disappearing.

originally published by BBC news

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