Panda gives birth to baby in the wild

July 24, 2004

Darjeeling, July 24. (UNI):Conservation of nearly-extinct animals received a shot in the arm when a female red panda, bred in captivity and subsequently released in the Singalila National Park last year, gave birth to a baby recently.

The panda named Sweety was nursed and bred in the Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological park in the vicinity of Himalayan Mountaineering Institute under the Red Panda Project. She gave birth to a baby on July 15, Park Director S Dhondyal said here. Red Panda, an elusive herbivorous animal, is in the list of highly endangered species and has a total population of around 250 in the world. The rare species is found in parts of Nepal, Darjeeling, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. Mr Dhondyal said both the mother and baby were doing well and they were being monitored as a radio collar has been afixed with the neck of the mother. Sweety and another female Panda Mellie, both bred in the Zoo, were freed into the Singalila National Park, the home of many endangered species above 13,000 feet high, on November 14 to mark the birth anniversary of country's first Prime Minister Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru.

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