BOB DOUGHTY:A rare Chinese red panda has been born at the Red River Zoo in Fargo,North Dakota.
Officials there say the birth is believed to be the first at a North Dakota zoo.
The Red River Zoo opened last year.
The cub's mother is a female red panda called Tsaka,which means mountain in Tibetan.Its father is named Chang.
Keepers at the zoo were surprised to discover that Tsaka had given birth in June.
They did not announce the birth until they were sure the panda cub would survive.
Zoo officials believe the cub is probably male.They have named it Liwu which means gift in Mandarin Chinese.
About fifty Chinese red pandas live in zoos in the western part of the world.
In the United States,the Knoxville Zoo in the state of Tennessee is best known for its programs to help red pandas reproduce.
More pandas have been born there than at any other zoo in the country.
SARAH LONG:The red panda is a small member of the animal family that includes the larger and more famous giant panda.
The red panda is similar in size and appearance to a raccoon.
Red pandas are known for their soft fur and long thick tails.
Panda cubs are very small when they are born.
They weigh about two-hundred grams when they are one week old.
When cubs are three months old,they start to look like adult pandas.Adults weigh about four kilograms.
BOB DOUGHTY:The red panda lives in the Himalayan Mountains in Nepal,Bhutan,Burma and southern China.
It is difficult to know for sure how many red pandas live in the wild.
That is because the bamboo forests where they live are very thick.
However,there is increasing evidence that the red panda is becoming endangered.
The major threats to pandas are said to be the loss of their native forests and illegal hunting.
For example,widespread cutting of forests for wood and farmland in China has destroyed large areas of the pandas'environment.