Dog becomes mum to two abandoned panda cubs

When two newborn red panda cubs at a zoo in north China were rejected by their mum, a dog stepped in to save the day

by: Claire Burke
16 July 2009

WHEN two newborn red panda cubs were abandoned by their mum, their future looked bleak.

But luckily for them, an unlikely surrogate mum came to their rescue.

This little white dog fed the cubs and cared for them during their critical first three weeks. And with its help, they are now thriving.

The cubs were born on 25 June in a zoo in Taiyuan, in north China's Shanxi province. But their mother, who had endured a very public birth in front of a crowd of visitors, immediately abandoned them.

"No one knew she was pregnant. Her plump body and bushy hair disguised her protruding belly until the babies were born," zoo worker Ha Guojiang, told Xinhua News Agency.

"We hurriedly went about to find a wet nurse for them."

A farmer who lived nearby offered the help of his dog, who had recently given birth.

Sadly, the pooch has now become so attached to the cubs she refuses to feed her own pup.

At three weeks old, the baby cubs have yet to open their eyes and have doubled in length to 20cm.

Unlike the better known giant pandas, red pandas are not bears. They resemble raccoons with long bushy tails, and like the giant panda live on a diet of mostly bamboo.

There are believed to be fewer than 2,500 adult red pandas in the world.

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