Months after his Valentine’s Day arrival in town, Hamlet, a red panda, recently made his first public appearance on the grounds of the Denver Zoo.
Hamlet, born in July 2013 at Lee Richardson Zoo in Kansas, has cream colored fur, and was born small enough to fit in the palm of your hand.
Red pandas, or fire foxes, are found in the Himalayas. As adults, they are 20-25 inches long, with 11-19 inch tails. They have soft, dense reddish fur on the back while their legs and undersides are dark and there is some white on their face and ears.
Their bushy tails have six distinctive yellowish rings.
Zoo officials said red pandas were formerly thought to be closely related to giant pandas, but are now considered to be closer related to raccoons.Like their larger cousins, these lesser pandas eat primarily bamboo shoots.
Red pandas are classified as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature , with an estimated population of fewer than 10,000 mature individuals remaining in the wild.
Weather permitting, guests can see Hamlet in his habitat on the southeastern side of the zoo, near the camels and Przewalski’s horses.
Officials said the zoo is is in the process of bringing a female to pair with him in he hopes that the two will breed in the future.
