A red panda housed at Finland's Ähtäri Zoo has survived after being bitten by an adder last week, the facility said in a press release.
The female panda, named Phoenix, was taken to a veterinary clinic last Friday after it showed signs of dehydration and zoo staff noticed the bite.
The press release noted that the mammal was found to be in good health for her age following the check up, and returned to Ähtäri later the same evening.
Phoenix then spent a few days in the zoo's infirmary, under observation, before returning to her own shelter on Thursday where she was reunited with her partner, Pablo.
"There may not have been any real danger to her life, but she was in a bad state," zoo curator Marko Haapakoski told Yle.
Ähtäri Zoo is located in a heavily forested area, which means adders can sometimes access the enclosures and their surroundings.
"We don't know for definite how many there are, as the enclosures are quite big, but maybe once a summer we see snakes in the area," Haapakoski said.
The red panda, also known as the lesser panda, is classed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as endangered, with about 10,000 individuals estimated to be living in the wild.
The species is facing extinction due to the impact of deforestation and poaching, among other threats.
Red pandas primarily live in southeast China and the Eastern Himalayas, at elevations of at least 2,000 metres. They spend most of their time in trees, eating bamboo, eggs, birds and insects.
With many colloquial names such as the red cat-bear, red bear-cat as well as the lesser panda, the species grows to be slightly longer and heavier than a domestic cat.
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