Red panda orphan is making good progress
FIGHTING FIT: Maggie the red panda orphan is making good progress
MAGGIE the orphaned red panda is now five months old, out of danger and a bit of a handful.
Born on July 1 at the Wildlife Park, the orphaned panda was hand-reared after her mother died from cancer.
Luckily, she spent three vital weeks with her mother before she died as only three orphaned red pandas have been successfully hand-reared in European zoos.
>> Red panda orphan makes public debut
See how she's changed - article includes video footage taken in August 2007
The red panda, also known as the fire fox, is an endangered species from Asia which actually belongs to the racoon family.
The Island's orphan, that was the size of a bag of sugar when her mother died, has been responding well to her 'surrogate mother', animal keeper John Clague.
He said he was confident Maggie, who is now two-thirds of the size of an adult red panda and nearly weaned off bottle milk, is out of danger.
He said: 'The only thing that might be a threat is any unforeseen illness that would have nothing to do with her upbringing. The hygiene aspect of things are still there in the preparation of her food but hand cleaning when handling her has all gone by the wayside now.'
When she was three months old John started introducing solid panda cake mix to her milk before trying to encourage her to feed herself.
He said: 'Fortunately that was a big turning point because it just simply happened one day at home. I placed some mixture into the bowl and she went straight to it and started lapping which was a great moment — it made life easier for everybody. She's been lapping from a bowl ever since.'
He said: 'All we would hope for now is for her to make the leap from liquid to solids. Once that happens we can say she is totally weaned.'
But he said Maggie was still very much a baby — each morning she cuddles and suckles on his neck for reassurance after being alone all night.
He takes Maggie home with him at night, but she spends the day at the Wildlife Park in a nursery where there is a tree for her to practice climbing on — which she has already mastered.
John said: 'In the afternoons she usually gets playful, but at night time she really does become a handful. She likes to climb and gamble about, jumping and racing around in my house. I usually give her an hour to exercise and build her muscles.'
Next spring John hopes that, if all goes well, Maggie will be moved into an outdoor pen next to her dad where visitors will be able to see her.
It has been arranged for her brother to go to Paignton Zoo in Devon soon which will free up his pen which has the tallest trees.
He said: 'Ideally her dad will be moved across to that one because he is obviously an expert climber and that will allow Maggie to have his pen which has far smaller trees that she'll hopefully learn to climb properly.
'I'll be watching her but I won't be in a position to climb up a tree and save her, so she's going to have to learn for herself.'
Luckily, she spent three vital weeks with her mother before she died as only three orphaned red pandas have been successfully hand-reared in European zoos.
>> Red panda orphan makes public debut
See how she's changed - article includes video footage taken in August 2007
The red panda, also known as the fire fox, is an endangered species from Asia which actually belongs to the racoon family.
The Island's orphan, that was the size of a bag of sugar when her mother died, has been responding well to her 'surrogate mother', animal keeper John Clague.
He said he was confident Maggie, who is now two-thirds of the size of an adult red panda and nearly weaned off bottle milk, is out of danger.
He said: 'The only thing that might be a threat is any unforeseen illness that would have nothing to do with her upbringing. The hygiene aspect of things are still there in the preparation of her food but hand cleaning when handling her has all gone by the wayside now.'
When she was three months old John started introducing solid panda cake mix to her milk before trying to encourage her to feed herself.
He said: 'Fortunately that was a big turning point because it just simply happened one day at home. I placed some mixture into the bowl and she went straight to it and started lapping which was a great moment — it made life easier for everybody. She's been lapping from a bowl ever since.'
He said: 'All we would hope for now is for her to make the leap from liquid to solids. Once that happens we can say she is totally weaned.'
But he said Maggie was still very much a baby — each morning she cuddles and suckles on his neck for reassurance after being alone all night.
He takes Maggie home with him at night, but she spends the day at the Wildlife Park in a nursery where there is a tree for her to practice climbing on — which she has already mastered.
John said: 'In the afternoons she usually gets playful, but at night time she really does become a handful. She likes to climb and gamble about, jumping and racing around in my house. I usually give her an hour to exercise and build her muscles.'
Next spring John hopes that, if all goes well, Maggie will be moved into an outdoor pen next to her dad where visitors will be able to see her.
It has been arranged for her brother to go to Paignton Zoo in Devon soon which will free up his pen which has the tallest trees.
He said: 'Ideally her dad will be moved across to that one because he is obviously an expert climber and that will allow Maggie to have his pen which has far smaller trees that she'll hopefully learn to climb properly.
'I'll be watching her but I won't be in a position to climb up a tree and save her, so she's going to have to learn for herself.'
The full article contains 560 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
Last Updated: 14 November 2007 11:58 AM
From iomtoday.co.im
From iomtoday.co.im
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