<b>Millbrook Celebrates Red Panda Day</b>

Students, staff, and faculty donated at least one dollar for the privilege of wearing jeans and red to raise money to purchase and preserve dwindling red panda habitats and to help train local people in Nepal to monitor red pandas. Over half the school wore red in support of red panda conservation. Together, we raised over $300.

SCAPE (Students Concerned About Planet Earth) and the Trevor Zoo student curators joined forces to lead efforts for red panda conservation on campus. Students collected funds on campus and worked together to create an inspiring and informative chalkboard mural in MASC about red pandas. The Trevor Zoo joined with thirty zoos from all over the world to launch this first ever International Red Panda Day.

The subspecies at the Trevor Zoo, Ailurus fulgens, is down to only 300-500 individuals in the wild in Nepal. Only 122 individuals of this subspecies are currently protected by Species Survival Plans in zoos. The Trevor Zoo is very fortunate to have a male and female red panda, Pang Pang and Hope. We hope that these two pandas will mate successfully and add to the number of healthy red pandas that are born in captivity. The aim of the Species Survival Plan for the red panda is to maintain and increase genetic diversity and the population of red pandas in captivity with the ultimate goal of releasing them into their native protected habitat in the wild.

 

Many thanks to everyone who contributed to red panda conservation and supported International Red Panda Day. To take a closer look at these special animals, visit Millbrook's Trevor Zoo and see Pang Pang and Hope, our wonderful red pandas.