Red pandas to make public debut on Valentine’s Day

Red panda at WNC Nature Center
A NEW LEAFA: Two red pandas, Leafa (pictured) and Phoenix, have taken up residence at the WNC Nature Center. Photo courtesy of the City of Asheville

The WNC Nature Center has a Valentine’s gift for Asheville. At noon on Thursday, Feb. 14, the center will open a new exhibit featuring two red pandas: Leafa and Phoenix.

The pair arrived in Asheville from Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo in November and has since been under quarantine at the Nature Center. The red panda is native to the high-altitude temperate forests of Nepal and China but is currently endangered across that range, primarily due to habitat loss.

Most of the funding needed for the red panda habitat and breeding center comes from the nonprofit Friends of the Nature Center, which chipped in $154,200 toward construction and has committed to $5,000 in annual operations support for 10 years. The city of Asheville contributed $30,620 in construction costs from the Parks and Recreation Department’s deferred maintenance budget.

Due to Leafa’s age — she is 10, and red pandas can live up to 15 years in captivity — and her genetic representation through the four litters she has already produced with Phoenix, she received an implant to prevent further pregnancies. The exhibit’s breeding center will thus be used by future animals at the Nature Center.

The red pandas come to town as the first stage of the Nature Center’s Prehistoric Appalachia project. The effort is meant to give context to fossilized finds from the Pliocene Epoch — roughly 5.3 to 2.6 million years ago — excavated at the Gray Fossil site in Tennessee, 70 miles to the north, in 2000.

Fossil remains of a distant relative to Leafa and Phoenix, Pristinailurus bristoli (Bristol’s panda), were unearthed at that site. Paleontologists estimate that this ancient ancestor would have weighed up to three times as much as the modern red panda, although its bite was likely weaker.

Ancestors of the modern tapir, sloth, rhinoceros, crocodile, camel and badger were also found at the Gray dig. The Nature Center intends to add the South American tapir, a vulnerable species and one of the largest land mammals in South America, as the next animal in the Prehistoric Appalachia collection.

SHARE

Thanks for reading through to the end…

We share your inclination to get the whole story. For the past 25 years, Xpress has been committed to in-depth, balanced reporting about the greater Asheville area. We want everyone to have access to our stories. That’s a big part of why we've never charged for the paper or put up a paywall.

We’re pretty sure that you know journalism faces big challenges these days. Advertising no longer pays the whole cost. Media outlets around the country are asking their readers to chip in. Xpress needs help, too. We hope you’ll consider signing up to be a member of Xpress. For as little as $5 a month — the cost of a craft beer or kombucha — you can help keep local journalism strong. It only takes a moment.

About Deborah
A lifetime of arts, crafts and publishing has culminated as this editor/shoemaker, splitting her reality between two worlds day-by-day.

Before you comment

The comments section is here to provide a platform for civil dialogue on the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate. Xpress editors are determined to moderate comments to ensure a constructive interchange is maintained. All comments judged not to be in keeping with the spirit of civil discourse will be removed and repeat violators will be banned. See here for our terms of service. Thank you for being part of this effort to promote respectful discussion.

4 thoughts on “Red pandas to make public debut on Valentine’s Day

Leave a Reply to Jason ×

To leave a reply you may Login with your Mountain Xpress account, connect socially or enter your name and e-mail. Your e-mail address will not be published. All fields are required.