Interesting Animal Video of the Week: A Cat Nursing a Panda Cub

After the May 12 Chengdu earthquake destroyed much of the Giant Panda habitat, pandas around the world have needed an extra dose of nurturing, but I honestly didn't expect that it would come from an unlikely source: a house cat.

When Gladys, a Red Panda at the Artis Zoo in the Netherlands, rejected her two panda cubs, the zookeeper's cat came to the rescue.  Three days prior to the June 30 panda birth, the cat had three kittens of her own, so she welcomed the baby pandas into the family. 

The weaker of the two cubs died last Thursday, but the other one will probably continue nursing for three months, at which point it will be able to eat bamboo and fruit. 

As you can see from the video, the panda cub is now much smaller than the kittens, and still hasn't opened its eyes.  Even when it's fully grown, it will probably only weigh between 6 and 10 pounds, which is considerably less than the 220 pounds of Giant Pandas.     

Although both types of pandas are native to China, they live in different regions.  Red Pandas, which are closer in appearance to raccoons, live in the Himalayan regions throughout China, India, Burma, Nepal, and Bhutan, whereas Giant Pandas, considered "bears:, are in the mountains Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu provinces.

 Both species are endangered, and the Red Pandas' bushy tails makes it a hot commodity on the black market.  Today only 2,500 adults remain.

The still-unnamed Red Panda in the Artis Zoo has an uncertain future ahead, but its fans worldwide are hopeful for its success.