Not because of hibernation: At the beginning of autumn, the two young pandas left the litter box in Kronberg's Opel Zoo, where they had previously been suckled by their mother.
Now the two female animals can be seen for the first time in the outdoor enclosure of the Asian cat bears.
They were born in June.
In the meantime, their fur is no longer gray, as is typical for the newborns of this animal species, but shows where they got the name red panda from.
Parents Mai-Ling and Tao apparently managed the premiere well.
For them it is the first offspring.
Bernhard Biener
Correspondent for the Rhein-Main-Zeitung for the Hochtaunus district.
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Red pandas are significantly smaller than their known black and white cousins.
Even if they also live in the mountain forests of the Himalayas from Nepal to Myanmar and feed on bamboo.
There are also fruits and occasionally even small animals.
After all, the irresistible button eyes and the white muzzle with the wet nose should not hide the fact that the “fire fox”, as the Chinese call it, is a predator.
But anyone who has ever seen the horror comedy "Gremlins" will not be fooled by cute balls of fur.
The first Red Pandas, Matt and Luri, came to Kronberg in 2007 and 2008. They soon lived up to the animal's reputation as a breakaway king when snow bent the bamboo and cleared the way outside. However, they were quickly recaptured. Given the climate in their natural habitat, the red pandas do not mind the winter cold here. When the young are larger, they are regularly given to other zoos to conserve the endangered species.