Bily, our long-awaited red panda!

Bily, is a young male born on June 19, 2021 at ZooParc de Overloon in Holland. He left Monday morning at the same time as his sister who went to another zoo in Holland. Bily crossed France in a truck until he arrived at PAL yesterday morning.

Tuesday, March 8, following his unloading, Bily was placed in a crate allowing him to observe his environment. The opportunity for the teams to also monitor the behavior of the female towards him. One to two hours later he was released and was able to join Naoki in his environment.

Bily is genetically compatible with the female Naoki in the event that breeding takes place within the framework of an EEP* program. However, our priority is above all to offer a congener with whom Naoki can coexist following the loss in 2020 of Pyro, his 12-year-old companion (life expectancy of the species between 10 and 15 years).

Naoki, our female red panda who has been present at PAL for 10 years, can also be sponsored by the Le PAL Nature Foundation.

*The EEP (European Endangered species Program) of the red panda where is it?

In 2021, this program identified 105 potentially reproductive pairs, including 80 confirmed pairs. They gave birth to 47 young. In these programs, the aim is to preserve the highest possible genetic diversity in order to allow diversified reproduction that is beneficial for the conservation of the species. In the red panda, it is close to 90% and so much to improve. In 2017, the EEP counted 180 males for 210 females for a total of 391 individuals in total in Europe.