A white day for a red panda in the Cairngorms!
Meet Kevyn, the adult male red panda at the Highland Wildlife Park at Kincraig.
He decided to venture out into his outdoor enclosure on Wednesday (January 14) and investigate the snowfall in the Highlands . . .
In June his mate Kitty gave birth to twins, a male named Makalu and a female named Annpurna after the Himalayan mountains.
Red pandas are native to the Himalayas in Nepal, Bhutan, India, Laos, Myanmar and southern China.
The name "panda" comes from the Nepalese word "nigalya panya", literally "bamboo eater".
Despite the name, red pandas are not related to giant pandas (which are part of the bear family), but are distantly related to the raccoon family.
They have no close living relatives, with their nearest ancestors living 3-4 million years ago.
Red pandas are threatened, with the major threat being destruction by man of the forested mountainous areas (between 1800m - 5000m) where they live.
Although they are protected in all the countries where they are found, they are still hunted illegally for their fur and in particular their long bushy tail which is highly prized as a good luck charm for Chinese newlyweds.
Red pandas are classified as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List with less than 10,000 individuals thought to remain in the wild.
The Highland Wildlife Park is part of the European Endangered Species programme (EEP) that is run by the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA).
