Taipei Travel

A pair of Red Panda from Shanghai Zoo arrived at Taipei Zoo in the early hours of June 6, and both are doing well. The male began sniffing around as soon as he entered the quarantine room and soon started eating, while the female cautiously and shyly observed her new surroundings. After spending one month in their quarantine suite, the pair will move to the Temperate Zone Animal Area at the end of the quarantine period and join the Red Panda family at Taipei Zoo as new individuals that help supplement the genetic diversity of the Red Panda population. Once they have become familiar with their new environment, they will meet the public.

The Red Panda is listed as Endangered (EN) on the IUCN Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and is also an Appendix I species under CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. At the 2024 Taipei-Shanghai City Forum, the two cities signed a memorandum of understanding on exchange and cooperation, including animal exchanges between zoos, professional development, and personnel exchanges, with the hope of contributing together to ex-situ conservation of endangered species in zoos.

With this arrival, two young Red Panda individuals from Shanghai Zoo, a three-year-old male and a two-year-old female, have joined Taipei Zoo. By introducing new bloodlines, Taipei Zoo hopes to maintain a healthy population size, age structure, and genetic diversity, working together toward the mission of ex-situ species conservation in zoos.