You can help name a baby red panda born earlier this year at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute campus in Front Royal, Va., if you put your vote in by this Saturday (Oct. 17).
According to the poll description, the panda was born this June to parents Keahi and Rocket. Already, she’s distinguished herself with “bold and feisty” behavior, it said. At the campus, the animal care team has provided three names the public can choose from: Dolly, after the late music icon Dolly Parton who died this August; Pyra, the word for “heat” in Greek, and Dolpa, a region of Nepal that is home to red pandas.
While these red pandas share part of their name with giant pandas (and a love for bamboo), they’re not in the bear family like the bigger pandas. They are actually in their own, independent family – Ailuridae. When they were first classified in 1825 they were described as members of the raccoon family, and they are probably most closely related to the group that includes those animals.
“Molecular phylogenetic studies show that red pandas are an ancient species in the order Carnivora (superfamily Musteloidea) and are probably most closely related to the group that includes skunks, raccoons and weasels,” said the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and & Conservation Biology Institute.
When they are adults, red pandas typically weigh between 8 and 17 pounds. They can live up to 23 years. In the wild, they live in “high-altitude, temperate forests with bamboo understories in the Himalayas and other high mountains,” per the Smithsonian zoo.
This new red panda cub was born along with two others at the Virginia campus earlier this year. She was born June 11, the only cub to 3-year-old Keahi and 7-year-old Rocket. Shortly before, on May 29, 3 year-old Sequoia gave birth to two cubs (one male and one female) sired by 12-year-old Mow Mow.
“The cubs are really just balls of fur that eat and sleep right now,” said Jessica Kordell, assistant curator of carnivores, when the births were announced this August.
In that announcement, the zoo explained that these were the second litters born to each couple, though both Rocket and Mow Mow sired cubs with other mothers. Sequoia and Mow Mow produced two cubs last year, but neither survived, while Keahi and Rocket produced a female cub named Kuna.
“Red panda cubs generally have low survival rates, so keeper staff take extra precautions to care for the expecting mothers and cubs,” said the zoo.
After voting closes on Oct. 17, the zoo will reveal what the public decided to name Keahi and Rocket’s new cub.
