>The Red Panda at the zoo is not a myth!

I still miss the Twitter excitement back when Rusty escaped to explore Adam's Morgan.

PSA/the best thing my therapist has ever told me: At the Pittsburgh zoo, you can pay 200 bucks for you and a buddy to feed and hang out with a red panda. She told me this after I said my new goal was to figure out how much money I had to donate to the National Zoo to get to hold one.

THE RED PANDAAA!!! THE RED PANDA IS REAAL!!!!

Fake. I’ll only believe it if you’re holding today’s WaPo.

I call BS. I've been to the zoo like 4-5 times now and have never seen that damn panda.

So my best friend got married at the National Aviary in Pittsburgh. I paid $300 for a handler to bring a penguin to the reception for photos. Everyone loved it. That penguin was awesome.

I’ll only believe it if they get the red panda to hold todays wapo

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I've seen one of them, but only once.

If you look at the bottom of their hut in the right corner of their habitat, the red pandas often stick their heads out of the “dog door” or quickly weave out and back into the building. Most times when I’m at the zoo (former WP resident so I went a lot in the last year) I see them briefly that way if they’re not sleeping. They also love the cold, so expect to see them on cold days, but not a great chance on hot ones!

Looks more like a red raccoon

So recently went and saw them in their little enclosure and it was a revelation. I'm glad for this post because I was all geeking out like "you never see these guys, really!"

RIP little guy.

I checked, and you can't touch the animals at encounters anymore in the Pittsburgh zoo. Most mammals can get COVID and don't always have effective vaccines, so distance is probably sticking around for a while.

Well fuck. If I can’t pick it up and bounce it like a baby in front of me then idk anymore.

If you are willing to drive a little further to Wheeling, WV, the zoo at Oglebay has meet and greets with certain animals including red pandas.

IIRC - the Baltimore Zoo has a "Penguin Ambassador" program that gives you a similar option if you get married there.

My friend did it at her wedding, pre-Covid.

u/Yikes_Brigade, you should check this out. I Googled the zoo based on Mostly's comment (I wanted to see if it was one of those awful road-side places or a legit institution) and OMFG YOU CAN PLAY WITH ALL THE CRITTERS!!!

https://oglebay.com/good-zoo/animal-encounters/

Mostlyvivace, you're a real one. This is awesome. Thank you for introducing this into my life.

Of course! I'm somewhat of a red panda fan myself 🙂

The zoo isn't publicly funded like Smithsonian but from what I could tell, they take good care of the critters.

Bless you and u/mostlyvivace830 - this is excellent news

I was going to ask, but I remembered I could Google it my damn self just as easily.

Looks like it's accredited and donations can be claimed on your taxes. I'm sure there are better metrics to go by, but those two are good enough for me.

Now if you'll excuse me - I have to go empty my bank account so I can do ALL the animal experiences!

I feel like the three of us need to make a road trip.

Cool, I see him (or her?) sleeping a lot in the hammock in the hut.

Never not seen this f'er. Always out.

I went on a random Tuesday and saw it