Red panda forest opens Saturday at the Minnesota Zoo

The Minnesota Zoo will be unveiling its red pandas to the public, alongside a tufted deer and red-crowned cranes, at its newest exhibit, the Red Panda Forest.

The stars of the new exhibit are Cedar and Spruce, brothers who were a part of triplets born on Aug. 10, 2024, at the Lincoln Children’s Zoo in Nebraska. While their sister, Juniper, will not be joining them in Minnesota, a triplet birth for red pandas is an extremely rare event.

An endangered species, red pandas face a very high risk of extinction. The zoo says habitat loss and other factors have threatened their population.

To put how rare red pandas are, the triplets born last year represented 25% of all red pandas born in 2024 in North American zoos.

In Red Panda Forest, the zoo says the brothers will have an expansive, wooded habitat. Stalks of bamboo, a running stream, mist and mossy boulders will mimic their native mountain forest.

The next star of the show is Douglas, a male tufted deer. While his current photo is when he was a fawn, Douglas is now grown and on his way to maturity, which will have the deer sport fang-like canine teeth.

Despite his one-inch “tusks,” Douglas, nor other tufted deer, have a taste for meat. Instead, Douglas prefers sweet potatoes. While alone for now, Douglas will be joined by a female deer companion in the future.

Flying in from the Smithsonian National Zoo, two red-crowned cranes have also arrived at the zoo.

The two 9-month-old crane sisters don’t have red heads at the moment, but will develop the signature look as they get older.

The red panda forest opens on Saturday, May 31; the zoo opens its doors at 10 a.m. and closes at 6 p.m.