Red panda moves to new home in breeding programme

A red panda has arrived at its new home as part of an endangered species breeding programme.

Flint was moved from Belfast Zoo to Amazon World Zoo Park on the Isle of Wight, on Thursday.

The 10-month-old met with the island zoo's 10-year-old female red panda Xiao in a specialist enclosure for the animals.

Amazon World Zoo Park said in a post on Facebook that it is hoped the pair will successfully breed "in the next couple of years".

It added: "A huge thank you to the team at Belfast Zoo for their help with organising the transfer."

Flint was flown from Belfast City Airport to Heathrow by British Airways before being transferred from the airport to the Isle of Wight.

The transfer was part of an international breeding programme.

Climate change and rising temperatures have affected the animals which are considered an endangered species.

According to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) there are less than 10,000 red pandas remaining in the wild.

Almost 50% of the red panda’s habitat is in the Eastern Himalayas.

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