According to BBC News, a Dutch zookeeper’s cat adopted two baby red pandas that had been rejected by their mother.
After the mother panda abandoned her two cubs, the zoo placed them in an incubator to keep them warm. The zoo keeper’s pet cat had recently given birth, however, and she allowed the panda cubs to come and nurse alongside her own kittens. One of the panda cubs was very weak and didn’t make it. The other cub has been doing well with its new feline mother, though it is still tiny – smaller than the kittens that have become its adopted siblings.
Red pandas are an endangered species found in Himalayan regions of India, Nepal, Bhutan, China, and Burma. Distant relatives of the giant panda, red pandas have reddish-brown fur on their bodies; darker fur on their legs, chests, and stomachs; white patches on their faces; and tails that are striped like those of raccoons. In adulthood they are not much larger than domestic cats.
