LIVE: Breaking Ground for Red Panda Conservation

FARGO — They may be far from their native homes in China, but the endangered red pandas who’ve called the Red River Zoo home now for more than a decade are good at making themselves at home here.

Thanks to the efforts of more than a decade of dedicated breeding, the zoo is known now as the top provider of red pandas internationally, having placed about a quarter of all the red pandas in zoos around the world.

And now, the zoo’s red panda family is getting a brand-new facility, after a major donation and a groundbreaking ceremony Friday morning at the zoo.

It’s a bittersweet moment of sorts, because for the zoo’s longtime executive director, Sally Mulvena, the groundbreaking is one of her final professional triumphs here.

She’s leaving at the end of May to relocate for her family and take a new zoo position in Florida.

Mulvena joined the Morning Show to give us a behind-the-scenes look at some of the zoo’s most charismatic and recognizable species and talk about the many milestones she’s reached in her tenure as its leader.

For more information:

https://www.redriverzoo.org/