Meet Bert and Ernie, the little twin red panda cubs that were born on June 30 in Whipsnade Zoo in England.
Photos of the cubs were recently released by the zookeepers to the public for the first time. Since their birth, the cubs have spent most of their time hiding in their nesting boxes until their mother Tashi, 6, started bringing them out and about for short periods.
"It's been magical to see the baby Red Pandas out and about for the first time," Stephen Perry, the senior keeper at the zoo, said, according to Zoo Borns.
Perry revealed that red pandas are hard to take care of due to their shyness and enigmatic personalities, as well as their nocturnal habits and spending a lot of their time up in trees.
"We never see much of their babies for the first couple of months of their lives but it's worth the wait. They're incredible and beautiful creatures, and a real visitor favorite," he said, according to ITV News.
Bert and Ernie were named after two of the most popular Sesame Street characters and are the fourth and fifth cubs born to Tashi respectively.
They are part of the European Endangered Species Programme (EESP), an instrument used to oversee conservation breeding programs in zoos, wildlife parks and aquariums all over Europe.
It is believed that there are about 10,000 red pandas - primarily located in Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal and southern China - left in existence and the numbers have declined due to poaching, habitat loss and amplified human activity, according to the Evening Standard.
