Some of our guests have recently been heard to exclaim “Hey! There’s two of them!” They are referring to our red pandas. Many of you know and are great fans of Toby, the World’s Cutest Animal. We recently acquired another panda, Take (pronounced Tah-Kay). Take came to us from the Red River Zoo in Fargo, North Dakota. He was the only male of a litter of triplets. It’s fairly unusual for red pandas to have three cubs, two being more common. Take is only a year old, although he is already almost a “grown up” in red panda terms. In the wild, red pandas are on their own and looking for their first mate at around 15 months old.
After Take had been here for a few weeks we decided to see what Toby and Take thought of one another. Pretty much they reacted as we anticipated. Toby, at nine years old, likes his nap time and wasn’t quite sure what this youngster was up to. Take, having just been separated from two rambunctious siblings, thought all red pandas wanted to play all day.
Fortunately, they seem to have come to an agreement in which Toby gets at least some of his nap time and Take occasionally gets Toby to engage in some chase sessions. They can be seen napping on the water fall together or searching for enrichment that the keepers have put out for them. If you stop by, you can distinguish Take because he is fluffier and has a lighter “strawberry blond” tail while Toby is darker with a “deep auburn” tail.
While I think we will all still agree that Toby is “The World’s Cutest Animal”, wouldn’t you say Take is a close second?
