Arun, a longtime resident of the Greater Vancouver Zoo, celebrated his 10th birthday on June 28.
The beloved red panda was given a special cake on the big day, baked fresh by animal care staff.
Birthday cards on poster paper and large cardboard pieces were placed at Arun's habitat, which he shares with his second mate Paprika.
"Thank you to the hundreds of you who came today to write kind messages, wishes, and drawings for Arun on his 10th birthday," the zoo posted online.
"We are so happy to see the wonderful impact that Arun has had on our guests."
Arun has been at the Aldergrove zoo in 2015, initially with his brother who later passed away. At the time, Arun was just over a year old.
He flew solo for several years at the Aldergrove conservation facility, until he was introduced to his first mate, Sakura, in March 2021. She joined the Greater Vancouver Zoo after six years at the Calgary Zoo.
"It's important that we do everything we can to help red pandas and ensure they're around for future generations," reads the zoo's post.
Red pandas are an endangered species, as population trends are decreasing in the wild. Major threats generally include habitat loss and fragmentation, and physical threats like climate change and natural disasters.
Red pandas usually breed from January through March, when the days start to get longer. Babies are born in the late spring. Arun and Sakura missed that window their first year together, but on June 14, 2022, Sakura gave birth to a pair of red panda cubs 鈥� one male and one female.
Maple and Mei Mei, as they were later named, were credited as being the first red pandas born in captivity in B.C.
The cubs have since moved on: Mei Mei to the Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg and Maple to the Zoo de Granby in Quebec, after a year staying at the Aldergrove zoo with their mother 鈥� the amount of time they stay with their mothers in the wild.
Zookeepers are hopeful to see some more babies frolicking in the enclosure soon, or at least next spring.
Red pandas are unique as they are in a family of their own (Ailuridae), classified under the superfamily Musteloidea, therefore, most closely related to raccoons and badgers.
In the wild, red pandas live in the foothills of the Himalaya mountains in China, India and Nepal. Their natural environment is damp and temperate, similar to that of the B.C.鈥檚 Lower Mainland.
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