Abandoned panda adopted by a cat 貓媽媽哺養被拋棄的小貓熊

A baby panda rejected by its mother has been adopted by a cat. The cat is suckling the animal along with its own young, Amsterdam’s Artis Zoo said last week.

“The young panda is doing well in the circumstances. For it to survive, it is very important that it gets enough food and grows. We will see if this is the case over the next few weeks,” the zoo said in a statement.

The animal, an endangered red panda, would need to be suckled by the cat for at least a few weeks. The zoo said that it is not strange for a wild animal to be adopted by a domestic one.

The panda and another sibling were initially accepted by their mother but a day later were found to have been abandoned. They were very sick.

“A cat belonging to one of the zookeepers had just given birth, so we decided to try to get it to suckle the pandas,” the statement said.

The second panda, already weak when it was placed with the cat, did not survive.

Red pandas, which are only slightly larger than domestic cats, are an endangered species. They’re found mostly in the eastern Himalayas.(STAFF WRITER, WITH AFP)

阿姆斯特丹的阿提斯動物園上週表示，一隻被貓熊媽媽拋棄的小貓熊被一隻貓收養，這隻貓一起哺育小貓熊和牠的小孩。

「這隻小貓熊適應得很好，牠存活的關鍵就是獲取足夠的食物才會慢慢長大。接下來幾週我們會仔細觀察。」

這是一隻瀕臨絕種的紅貓熊，牠至少還需要貓媽媽提供奶水數週。園方表示，這並不是被飼養的動物餵養野生動物的特例。

貓熊媽媽一開始還給這隻小貓熊和牠的另一名手足餵奶，但一天後就拋棄了牠們，當時牠們非常虛弱。

園方發佈的聲明上提到：「園內一名管理員養的貓才剛產下小貓，所以我們決定嘗試讓牠為這隻小貓熊餵奶。」

另一隻小貓熊在放到貓媽媽身旁時就已相當虛弱，後來仍無力回天。

瀕臨絕種的紅貓熊體型比一般家貓大一點，多半出現在喜馬拉雅山東麓。

（法新社�翻譯：袁星塵）