Video: Red Panda Cubs Step Out To Show Everyone How Cute They Are

By Emma G. Gallegos in News on Oct 23, 2015 3:52PM

Yeah, we see you! (Lincoln Park Zoo)

The red panda cubs Clark and Addison made their public debut this week, and they are adorable! The cubs were born earlier in June, but the Lincoln Park Zoo had them step out for the first time this week. Fortunately, if you can't head to the zoo right this instant, there's a video for you to enjoy their transition from "helpless, nearly hairless infants to the cute climbers we see today."

Wikipedia calls them "lesser pandas" but that's way harsh and not even all that true. They do both love eating bamboo shoots and leaves, and they have an extended wrist bone known as a "panda's thumb" that helps them grab on to branches for feeding. However, red pandas are only a distant cousin of giant pandas. They're also distantly related to raccoons, which you can tell by that bushy tail that they use "as wraparound blankets in the chilly mountain heights," National Geographic says. But the red pandas have their own family: Ailuridae. Sadly, red pandas, who hail from the mountains of Nepal, northern Myanmar (Burma) and central China, are endangered victims of deforestation.

You can meet Clark and Addison as well as their mom Leafa IRL at the Kovler Lion House at the Lincoln Park Zoo. They're on display every morning by 10 a.m. daily.

Here they are stepping out in the public eye for the first time: