Endangered red panda moves to Woburn Safari Park near Milton Keynes

Woburn Safari Park has welcomed its latest new arrival - an adorable one-year-old red panda called Sanka.
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Sanka with his beautiful and striking ginger face is happily exploring his home whilst playing peekaboo with his new gal pal “Mali”, Woburn’s current female red panda.

The new couple are slowly getting to know one another and keepers hope that this time next year the red panda family will expand.

Louise Moody, Senior Keeper in Animal Encounters said: “All of the keepers are extremely excited to welcome Sanka to the Park and we are delighted at the progress that he is making.

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"He’s still a bit shy in his new surroundings at the moment but he has begun exploring the outside area of his enclosure more and more in the past few days which has been great to see.”

Named after the red pandas’ place of origin, the ‘Himalayan Heights’ enclosure in Animal Encounters, has been designed to mimic their wild habitat, high up in the mountain ranges of China, India and Nepal and features a waterfall, a variety of outdoor nest boxes and climbing frames, a bamboo garden and an overhead walkway.

Listed as ‘endangered’ by the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), only around 2,500 of this beautiful species is left in the wild and their survival remains under threat, mainly because of habitat destruction.