A newborn red panda rejected by its mother in Amsterdam's Artis zoo has been adopted by a domestic cat, the zoo said Friday.
The cat is nursing the red panda, currently about the size of a kitten, along with her own four kittens, the zoo said. The cat belongs to a keeper at the zoo, who decided to try this after the panda had initially been put in an incubator.
The red panda was born on June 30 and rejected by its mother soon afterwards. It will drink the milk from the cat for 3 weeks, and then move onto bamboo.
Red pandas look like raccoons and when fully grown are slightly larger than a domestic cat -- substantially smaller than the black and white giant panda.
"They are skilful climbers that, when not foraging on the ground, spend most of their time in the trees curled up with their long, bushy tails wrapped around their heads," the World Wildlife Fund conservation charity said on its website.
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2008-07-14 @ 00:15