Two red panda cubs abandoned by their mother at birth are thriving at a northern China zoo thanks to milk and loving care from an unlikely surrogate mother - a dog, state media reported on Thursday. The cubs, born June 25, were abandoned immediately by their mother after giving birth in front of a crowd of visitors at the Taiyuan Zoo in northern China's Shanxi province, according to a zoo employee. The dog wet nurse was selected from two other candidates that had recently given birth. The dog is now raising the two panda cubs like its own pups, sometimes even refusing to feed its own pup, he said. Unlike the more well-known, bear-like giant pandas, red pandas resemble raccoons with long bushy tails.
