TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taipei Zoo’s latest red panda, Mirai (未來), a 4-year-old male on loan from Japan’s Hamamatsu Zoo, went on display to visitors from Tuesday (May 7).

Upon arriving at Taipei Zoo on Dec. 29, Mirai was in quarantine for a month. Mirai was then paired for mating with a female red panda for four months, as red pandas come into heat in the early winter months of January and February.

Now, Mirai has access to an outdoor play area for about four to six hours a day, weather permitting. Zoo officials hope Mirai will complete acclimation to his new environment in July and interact with the other 11 red pandas at the zoo, per a Taipei Zoo press release.

Taipei Zoo hopes that Mirai can contribute to its red panda population program, which has a limited gene pool. Many of the red pandas at the zoo are descendants of three red pandas that arrived from the Straits Panda Research Center in Fuzhou, China, in 2014.

This trio of red pandas included Meike, Huanhuan, and Yaya. A total of nine red panda births have been recorded at Taipei Zoo.

However, the limited gene pool associated with the trio of red pandas from China was a cause for concern for zookeepers, who sought to complement the zoo's population with a red panda from another genetic pool.

Thus, Taipei Zoo sent a delegation to discuss the breeding of red pandas with the Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums. A month later, an agreement to send Mirai to Taipei was agreed upon.

The arrival of Mirai comes after Taipei Zoo lost one of its elder red pandas. Meike passed away due to complications associated with lymphoma on May 1, reaching the age of 15, which is considered old for the species.

A routine health checkup of Meike in May last year revealed an enlarged lymphoid tumor in her abdominal cavity. Despite steroid treatment, the tumor continued to grow and spread to other organs, leading to eventual heart failure.

Taipei Zoo thanked Meike for many happy memories over the past 15 years. Taipei Zoo also thanked her for contributing so many offspring to the zoo's red panda population.