Want to send a drawing to a baby red panda? NC science center will hang it in his room

Fans are showing love for a newborn endangered red panda named Ravi, who was welcomed at a North Carolina science center in June.

Ravi, who was born overnight between June 19 and 20 at the Greensboro Science Center, received a drawing from a young fan of a red panda hanging from a tree branch that reads “Welcome, Ravi,” the center shared in a Facebook post. Keepers are asking for more submissions from fans that they say will be hung in Ravi’s room.

Art can be mailed to: Attn: Marketing, 4301 Lawndale Dr, Greensboro, NC 27455, according to the center.

Ravi represents the first successful birth of a red panda cub at the Greensboro Science Center, keepers said in a news release.

Red pandas are endangered, with fewer than 10,000 in the wild, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

Ravi, which is Sanskrit for sun, is being hand-reared by a veterinary team at the science center in order to improve his chances of survival, keepers said.

Red pandas in the wild and in captivity sometimes kill their cubs, according to Jessica Hoffman, vice president of animal care and welfare at the Greensboro Science Center. This is in part why keepers decided to hand-rear Ravi, because his mother, Usha, has killed cubs in the past, Hoffman said in a statement.

“This was a risk we did not want to take,” she said.

Ravi is not currently visible to guests, but his care team has been keeping the public informed about his progress via social media.

“Baby red panda’s first exam,” the science center wrote in a July 7 Facebook post with a video of veterinarians examining and feeding Ravi, who appears slightly larger than a person’s hand.

Adult red pandas are a little bigger than domestic cats, according to the World Wildlife Fund. In the wild, they live mostly in the Eastern Himalayas and China.

Ravi’s mother, Usha, and father, Tai, were recommended for breeding by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Species Survival Plan Program, which works with zoos and aquariums to breed endangered species, the release says.

The Greensboro Science Center is an aquarium, museum and zoo with a focus on conservation, according to its website. Greensboro is about 80 miles northwest of Raleigh.

“The birth of our new red panda sparks the beginning of what we hope will become breeding success with cassowaries, pygmy hippos, fishing cats, sand cats, servals, black-footed cats and more,” Glenn Dobrogosz, CEO of the Greensboro Science Center, said in a statement. “Breeding success for rare and endangered species is a core mission goal of the (Greensboro Science Center) and (Association of Zoos and Aquariums).”

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