Sad loss of red panda Aki

Animal news | 24 July 2025

On the morning of 16 July, our red panda Aki was found weak and almost motionless on the floor of his enclosure. An examination revealed no injuries or diseases. Aki was given emergency care, fluids, a nutrient solution and analgesics and was returned to his stall for further observation overnight, but very sadly, he did not recover. He was extremely wobbly on his feet, sometimes even falling over, had watery diarrhoea, and continued to be very weak. In view of his advanced age (eleven) and poor prognosis, we decided to put Aki to sleep in order to spare him any more suffering.

We are very sad about this: we would have loved him to be able to spend a few more good years in our beautiful panda enclosure. In exceptional cases, red pandas (also known as lesser pandas) can live up to the age of 19 in zoos. Aki came to us from Poznan just three and a half months ago. Our keepers found him sociable and outgoing, and he will be greatly missed.