Red panda twins born at Cornish attraction

The twin pandas were born at Paradise Park in Hayle

After birth, the mother cleans the cubs and can then recognize each by its smell

Male red pandas rarely help raise their young

Red panda twins have been born at Paradise Park in west Cornwall, for the first time since 2001.

Mother Jai-Li was brought to England from Copenhagen Zoo in Denmark last summer to be paired with Lang Za.

The park, based in Hayle, gained national exposure in 2001 when Jai-Li's predecessor gave birth to triplets.

The animal is classed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as its wild number is estimated at under 10,000.

David Woolcock, the curator at Paradise Park, said: "We had suspected she was pregnant but you can never be 100% sure.

"Keepers had noticed that she seemed to have put on weight and this was confirmed when the vet came in and we weighed her.

"Our red panda keeper Donna Sinclair had in fact only just gone on maternity leave that very same day, but we phoned her straight away so she didn't miss anything."

Paradise Park fears the number of red pandas living in the wild in the bamboo forests of the Himalayas, could be as low as 2,500.