Red pandas break out of Swiss zoo after heavy snowfall
A pair of red pandas broke out of their zoo enclosure and escaped into a nearby forest.
The female cubs, Li and Yen, made the daring getaway after heavy snowfall caused plants in the panda enclosure to collapse, offering an escape route.
A desperate search operation by the Swiss Zoo brought the pandas home after their tiny paw prints in the snow were spotted.
After 30cm of snow fell around Walter Zoo in north east Switzerland, the zoo’s two adventurous panda cubs took advantage of toppled plants in their enclosure to make a run for it.
Zoo staff soon sounded the alarm and a search operation began for the animals.
The first cub, Li, was quickly spotted relaxing alongside the zoo’s vicuñas after tracks in the snow revealed which directions the runaways had taken.
Yen, however, had escaped the grounds, with the remaining paw prints taking the search team into the nearby forest as they sought to track her down.
Video shows Yen strolling through the forest before spotting her captors and freezing in place.
With support from Switzerland’s K-9 Animal Search team, as well the help of a pedestrian, Yen was chased with a net by zoo staff and soon caught.
Once reunited and back at the zoo, both panda cubs were thoroughly examined by vets and given the all clear.
What are red pandas and how similar are they to giant pandas?
Red pandas were the ‘original’ pandas after being named by French zoologist Frédéric Cuvier in 1825. Giant pandas were discovered over 40 years later in 1869.
Red pandas and giant pandas also belong to separate animal families. While giant pandas belong to the bear family, red pandas are more closely related to raccoons, weasels, and skunks.
A red pandas diet is 98% bamboo, with the animals eating 20 to 30 percent of their body weight in bamboo.
Nicknamed ‘red bear-cat’, red pandas sleep for two-thirds of the day, up to 17 hours.
Red pandas are about 50-60 centimeters long and weigh between three and five kilograms
Walter Zoo, located near the historical city of St Gallen in north east Switzerland, was founded in 1961 and is home to over 900 animals of around 130 different species.
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