Red panda cub Sha-Lei makes her first personal appearance at just two weeks old

**Honey** · June 30th, 2009, 08:44 PM

She may look more like a hedgehog than a panda at this point, but don't be fooled by this little cutie.
Tiny Sha-lei is actually a rare Styan red panda cub, one of very few left of the North American sub-species.
Sha-lei weighed in at just 169 grams when born at the Valley Zoo in Edmonton, Canada on June 13.

Brand new: Sha-lei is a Styan red panda cub born in Edmonton, Canada on June 13

Sha-lei was officially presented to the media on June 30 and today makes her debut at the Zoo from 9:30 to 3pm at the Saito Centre.
She is being hand-raised by Valley Zoo Animal Health Technologist Sandy Heiliker, rather than stay with her mother.
This is because her mother attempted to aggressively groom her soon after her birth. Sha-lei had to be removed for her own safety.
Sha-lei exists because of the zoo's Species Survival breeding program.
The program tries to preserve the population of endangered species through breeding regulation.

Sha-Lei was only presented to the media on June 30

It currently looks after four red pandas (Sha-lei, her mother, father and sister Pip), while only 2,500-3,000 of the sub-species are thought to be left in the wild.
Sha-lei was born deaf and blind, like all red pandas, so Heiliker is having to do everything for her that her mother would otherwise do.
And if you're wondering why she's called a red panda but is actually grey - this is but a temporary condition.
She should turn red by the end of the summer.

Tiny Sha-Lei is still not much bigger than the breadth of a hand

It's panda-monium as cub Sha-Lei makes her first personal appearance at just two weeks old | Mail Online