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.
From the NY Daily News
By TRACY MILLER
Daily New Staff Writer
big heart…thanks to Ha for taking over her pup for her.
'and were immediately rejected by their mother as a large crowd of zoo visitors looked on'.
Maybe, had there not been a large crowd of onlookers the mother might not have rejected them…
'and were immediately rejected by their mother as a large crowd of zoo visitors looked on'.
Maybe, had there not been a large crowd of onlookers the mother might not have rejected them…