Red Panda Twins Born at Banana Weight Are Now Alex and Priya

Two red panda cubs at Whipsnade Zoo in England now have names: Alex and Priya. They were born in the summer at about the weight of a banana each, and they have spent their first four months mostly out of sight.

The twins were born overnight on July 16 to Ruby, who is 5, and Nilo, who is 6. Each weighed around 90 grams at birth. They arrived with their eyes still closed, tucked into the nest box with their mother, relying on her for warmth and food while their russet coats slowly came in.

When the zoo announced the birth in September, the cubs were six weeks old and growing, and primate section manager Amanda Robinson said the team wouldn't know their sexes until the first health check at around ten weeks. That check has since happened, on camera: keepers confirmed one male and one female, weighed them, vaccinated them, microchipped them, and pronounced both very healthy.

The names arrived with the zoo's Christmas season. Alex and Priya are listed among the newest arrivals spending their first Christmas at the zoo, alongside a baby Asian elephant named Anu and five African lion cubs.

They still aren't on public view. The zoo's November roundup of its baby animals says the cubs can't be seen just yet, and that it will post updates on their progress and word of when they start exploring outside the nest box.

The cubs were expected to start taking their first tentative steps outside the nest box at around three months old, which means the exploring phase is beginning right about now, behind the scenes. In the wild, red panda numbers keep falling under habitat loss, fragmentation and poaching, which is why a European breeding programme pair producing healthy twins matters to more than one zoo. The twins' arrival also landed in a landmark year for the charity behind Whipsnade: ZSL is celebrating its 200th anniversary.

Red pandas are classified as endangered, with fewer than 10,000 believed to remain in the wild across the Himalayas and southwest China, and they are an EDGE species, evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered, meaning losing them would mean losing an entire branch of the tree of life. The Whipsnade family is part of a European conservation breeding programme.

So the twins' first winter comes with a full file: two names, two microchips, a clean bill of health each, and a public debut still to come.