Detroit's Red Pandas To Get Bigger Digs

ROYAL OAK, MI –The play area of a trio of adorable red pandas is going to get a sizable remake, after the the Detroit Zoo received a $500,000 grant. The Holtzman Wildlife Foundation Red Panda Forest will offer pandas Ravi, Ash and Ta-Shi a larger and more stimulating naturalistic environment, according to the zoo.

The zoo announced that it had received the donation from the Holtzman Wildlife Foundation, a Farmington Hills based organization that promotes wildlife advocacy and repopulation. The grant enables the Detroit Zoo to expand the current red panda display by 4,000 square feet to more than 14,000 square feet.

The new, larger display will feature a flowing stream, a larger and more complex arboreal pathway through the habitat, misting areas to cool the red pandas in the summer, additional land for exploration and a variety of new nesting places. There also will be a new indoor holding area with heated and cooled areas equipped with nest boxes, branches and other features to ensure the red pandas’ health and welfare during the occasional times they are not in the outdoor habitat.

The Red Panda Forest exhibit was designed by Jones & Jones, architects of the Detroit Zoo’s Polk Penguin Conservation Center, Arctic Ring of Life and National Amphibian Conservation Center. The total project cost is estimated to be more than $700,000.

In addition to the Detroit Zoo's three red pandas, the zoo has been involved with a breeding program with other zoos, and nine red panda cubs have been born at the zoo during the past nine years. The cubs all have been moved to other zoo to enhance genetic diversity of the population.

Experts estimate that there are fewer than 10,000 red pandas in the wild.

Images courtesy of the Detroit Zoo