Visitors have been deprived of its sight in lack of proper arrangement to keep the rare animal. The zoo officials had claimed that the panda, which was brought to the zoo in dying condition from Churchure VDC - 2 of Ramechhap district, would be put for public display in the few weeks of its arrival. [break]
“We have not kept it for public display as we have not been able to make a proper artificial nest for the animal,” said Dr Balkrishna Giri, chief of the animal rescue team at the zoo. “However, the animal is doing well.”
According to the zoo staff Radhakrishna Gharti, many visitors are aware about the red panda being in the zoo and express eagerness to see it.
It is the second red panda in the zoo. Earlier, there was a female red panda that died in 1989.
The current panda has been kept in an air-conditioned to suit the temperature it needs. Pandas, which are found in Langtang National Park, Annapurna Conservation Area, Sagarmatha National Park, Manaslu Conservation Area, Makalu Barun National Park and Kanchanjunga Conservation Area in Nepal, survive only in cold areas.
Gharti, who meets the panda twice daily for its care, informed that the panda recently gained much weight which forced the staffs to cut banana from its diet. Since a few weeks, the panda is having only bamboo, apple and mosambi. “We used to feed the panda banana regularly. But then we realized that it was putting on much weight. So we stopped giving it banana,” Gharti said.
The panda which weighed 2.5 kilogram when rescued by the zoo staffs is nearly 3.5 kg now. “It seems to have well adjusted here by now. Though it is also true that it might be feeling lonely,” Gharti said.
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