Adorable and endangered red panda cub born at Hertfordshire Zoo

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The UK’s Hertfordshire Zoo welcomed a newborn red panda in July, according to a press release. The little cub is currently being referred to as “Red Panda” while the zoo waits until he is old enough for a veterinary exam.

The birth is good news for conservationists worldwide: According to the release, there are fewer than 2,500 red pandas in the wild.

Native to the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China, the cute critters are listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). According to the IUCN, their populations are declining due to habitat loss and hunting for food, medicine and clothing.

And the new cub is also a “miracle” for its parents, according to the zoo. The baby was born to mother Tilly and father Nam Pang, who died a month before the cub was born. The pair had been matched by an international breeding program but failed to conceive for the past four years. But the caretakers noticed that Tilly only started nesting two weeks after her partner’s death.

“Little Red” will not leave its nest for a few months. But zoo guests can still catch a glimpse of his mother.

“This cub has become a symbol of hope,” Aaron Whitnall, operations coordinator at the zoo, said in the release. “After Nam Pang’s tragic passing, it is more than we ever expected that his memory and legacy will live on.”

Despite their names, red pandas are more closely related to raccoons and weasels than to black and white pandas, says the World Wildlife Fund. But both species rely on a bamboo-based diet, which is what gave them their name. Panda is thought to be derived from the Nepalese word ‘ponya’ for ‘bamboo or herbivorous animal’. according to the WWF.

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