The Virginia Zoo’s red panda, Yin, is known for her great escapes, but she may have found a reason to stay close to home – a male red panda named Oscar.

Yin became well known when she arrived at the Virginia Zoo two years ago and quickly learned how to escape from her open air exhibit – making two well publicized break outs. After the exhibit was modified, Yin settled into her new home, but visitors are still charmed by her moxie.

However, Oscar will have to work harder to win the heart of Yin, it seems.  Early introductions of the pair, made on Friday in attempt to introduce the pair prior to the elevated temperatures of the weekend (panda treetop temperatures are up to 10 degrees cooler than those at ground level), Yin seemed uninterested in her new mate. This is to be expected, explains Zoo executive director, Greg Bockheim, because red pandas are solitary animals by nature. “In the wild and in zoos, red pandas most often seem to ignore each other throughout the year except for the one day a year when the female is in heat.  On that day they can be inseparable but the next day they go back to ignoring each other for the rest of the year,” he says.

Oscar and Yin are part of an international Species Survival Plan (SSP), a program managed by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) to manage the captive breeding programs of endangered species. Other SSP animals at the Virginia Zoo include the African lions, ground hornbills and eastern bongos.

“Oscar comes to us from the Cleveland Metropark Zoo in Ohio,” says Bockheim. “The AZA team of red panda experts identified him as an ideal genetic match for Yin, and we’ve been looking forward to adding him to our exhibit. Visitors love to see these beautiful animals hanging out in the trees, and we are pleased to be managing this breeding program and look forward to announcing a successful birth of baby red pandas in another year.”

Red pandas come from the cool bamboo forests found in China’s Sichuan and Yunnan Provinces, in the Himalayas and in Myanmar. They share part of their range with giant pandas, and like the giant pandas, they are endangered due to habitat loss. There are fewer than 2,500 adult red pandas in the wild.

With their lush red coats and bushy stripped tails, the red panda may look like a cross between a red fox and a raccoon, but in fact they are perfectly adapted for their native environment. Their red-and white markings blend in with the red mosses and white lichens that grow on trees in their habitat. They use their long tails to help balance when in they’re in trees. They have broad teeth and strong jaws to help them chew tough bamboo leaves and stalks. And like giant pandas, red pandas have a thumb-like adaptation (small, bony projections on their wrists) that helps them grip bamboo stalks.

Yin and Oscar can be seen at the Zoo’s open air red panda exhibit, near the train station. They most often can be spotted high up in the trees where they like to watch the activity below them – when they’re not napping. Although their dense fur keeps them comfortable in Asian mountains, it can make for a hot summer in Hampton Roads, so sometimes you may see them lounging in one of their huts, because it has air conditioning!

“Yin and Oscar are really the first of our Asian animals to be exhibited,” says Bockheim. “We’re looking forward to finishing construction of our Trail of the Tiger exhibit in late 2010 and introducing Hampton Roads to more of the exotic, amazing and endangered animals from Asia. Our goal is not only to entertain and educate guests about the rich natural resources of this astonishing continent, but to help raise awareness of the need for conservation outreach to protect the fragile habitats of these magnificent animals.”