BALTIMORE — DC may have had giant pandas, but The Maryland Zoo has big plans to bring a different type of panda to Baltimore - the red panda.
The zoo announced in a fundraising letter that it's opening its first new habitat in more than 30 years, in hopes of setting up this new exhibit just in time for the institution's 150th anniversary in 2026.
The new habitat, to be located in the "Main Valley," will be designed for a breeding pair of red pandas, which are native to the Eastern Himalayas. The zoo said they're finalizing construction drawings and hope to break ground by the end of this year.
Sketches of the proposed habitat show a stone structure for visitors to watch the pandas, surrounded by Tibetan prayer flags. There's also tall netting, with the proposed pandas hanging out in trees.
The zoo says on its website:
As a new mammal in the Zoo’s collection, the red pandas will be an engaging and welcome addition... The red pandas will be located in the Main Valley near the former snowy owl habitat. The new red panda habitat will help to highlight conservation efforts to establish a “bio-bridge” connecting forested highlands between Nepal and India through reforestation efforts. This makes the red panda a flagship species that provides conservation of entire habitats when they are protected.
Red pandas are genetically not related to either bears or pandas, said the zoo. They're "unique in that they are their own taxonomic group known as Ailuridae... In fact, they are the original panda - named 'panda' fifty years before the giant panda."
In line with the new habitat, the zoo will also move the existing snowy owl and bald eagle to a new habitat in the "Maryland Wilderness" section.
