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Red Panda Cubs Make Their Debut at Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo
Two red panda cubs born at the Chicago zoo are set to make their debut.
Sheffield and Waveland were born at the Windy City’s Lincoln Park Zoo in June at the zoo’s Kolver Lion House, according to Chicago Tonight. They get their names from two streets that line Chicago’s famous baseball park, Wrigley Field.
According to Mark Kahmout, mammal curator at Lincoln Park Zoo, there are only 10,000 red pandas left in the world, mainly due to poaching and habitat loss.
“So, they’re very important to conserve,” said Kahmout in a video interview with AP. “Not only so that we can learn more about them, but also conserve the environment in which they live.”
Despite the red panda’s similarity to raccoons and sharing a namesake with black and white panda bears, they mammals are not a part of either family, but instead part of a group called Ailuridae. The red panda is the only living member of the family as all other members have become extinct.
