First glimpse of Flamingo Land's baby red panda

The male panda cub, who is yet to be named, was born in June and was filmed for the first time exploring the world around him, as he starts to spend more time out of his nest box, growing in size and confidence.

Under the watchful eye of his mum Tai Jang, he has been exploring and climbing trees, becoming more active all the time.

James Coleman, education officer at Flamingo Land, said: "The cub was born on June 17 so at three months this is the ideal time for our guests to see him.

"As our red pandas are arboreal they do spend a lot of time snoozing up in the trees and can be hard to spot! They are most active during the hours of dusk and dawn."

Numbers of red pandas in the wild are on the decline, with deforestation causing their habitats to be lost in countries such as Nepal, India, China and Bhutan.

Red pandas are also poached for their fur and skins, as well as the illegal pet trade, with just 10,000 adults now left in the wild.

James added: "Our red pandas are part of an international breeding programme so as our cub gets older we will be moving him on to another zoo so he can father cubs of his own in the future.

"As the climate in the UK is similar to that of their natural habitat they do tend to thrive in captivity in this part of the world.

"Should it get too cold like it can in the Himalayas then our red pandas can wrap their fluffy tails around their bodies like a duvet to keep them warm.

"Here at the zoo our red pandas could live up to 14 years old whereas in the wild they tend to live for 8-10 years. Bai Jiao our male and Tai Jang our female are both six years old."