Chattanooga Zoo’s beloved red panda, Pilatus, leaving

By Mason Edwards, Chattanooga Times Free Press

Staff photo by Mason Edwards / Pilatus the red panda eats grapes from zookeeper Savannah Churlik on June 24, 2025, at the Chattanooga Zoo. The 1-year-old red panda is set to leave the zoo as part of a breeding program for the endangered species.

The Chattanooga Zoo is preparing to say goodbye to Pilatus, the first red panda born there in the past eight years.

Friday, the 1-year-old Pilatus will be sent to the Beardsley Zoo in Connecticut as part of a national breeding effort to preserve the red panda species.

"He's about the age where he would be leaving his mom in the wild as well, so it is time for him to head out," Chattanooga Zoo General Curator Lacey Hickle said in an interview. "We're all going to be sad to see him go, but they know that it's important for the species for him to go on and, hopefully, have his own offspring in the future."

The departure is part of a carefully managed conservation effort, the Species Survival Plan, overseen by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Because the Chattanooga Zoo already has a breeding pair — Pilatus' parents, Saffron and Avi — Beardsley Zoo will take Pilatus. Pilatus will be paired with a female red panda named Ponya, based on their genetic compatibility as determined by the Species Survival Plan program.

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Chattanooga Zoo Director of Marketing and Communications Jake Cash said the panda made waves across social media when he was born, racking up millions of views and quickly becoming a local favorite. He's rambunctious, photogenic and charismatic, according to Cash, and the keepers are all close to him.

"Pilatus is the first red panda we had here in eight years, so it's super exciting for staff, very exciting for the community as well," he said. "When we announced him, someone like, baked a cookie and decorated it like Pilatus, so we've seen a lot of love online and in person about him."

Cash said that the zoo's red pandas are fan favorites, tied closely with the giraffes and chimps. The Chattanooga Zoo is one of 66 zoos in the United States and Canada to keep red pandas, Hickle said. When asked whether the loss of Pilatus would economically affect the zoo, she was unsure.

"We're hoping not," she said. "We're hoping our pandas in general are cute enough to bring guests in even after he leaves, and we're hoping ... maybe another baby panda in the near future will also help kind of bring some guests in as well."

Cash said that the point of the Species Survival Plan is about serving the needs of the animals and animal care.

"At the end of the day, it's really just about where does Pilatus need to go for him terms of his development, where does he need to go to contribute to the overall population of red pandas within zoos," he said.

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Red pandas are an endangered species, with an estimated 2,500 to 10,000 wild red pandas left, Cash said, adding that for endangered and critically endangered species, Species Survival plans are an important countermeasure in the face of habitat loss and other factors.

"Part of the purpose of that is to create a healthy, sustainable and genetically diverse population of a given species within zoos, so that we can maintain that for many years to come," Cash said in an interview. "So that prevents zoos from needing to take animals out of the wild, whereas we can be self-sustained."

Pilatus will have a send-off event from 2-4 p.m. Friday. Attendees can enter a raffle, with the winner being allowed to feed Pilatus grapes. Attendees can also purchase art, commemorative stickers and Pilatus-themed T-shirts, according to a press release.

As animals, red pandas are unique in that scientists don't agree on where to classify them compared to raccoons, bears or black-and-white pandas, Cash said. Pilatus is a Himalayan red panda. He's named after the model of aircraft originally used to bring Saffron here in 2023, and Cash said that some keepers nicknamed him Pilot.

Zoo staff said they've worked with Pilatus since birth to prepare him for this moment, referring to crate training that will make his transportation comfortable. Hickle will drive Pilatus to a halfway point, where someone from the Connecticut zoo will take over.

The Chattanooga Zoo doesn't technically own Pilatus or Saffron, Hickle said. She hesitated to reveal which zoo owns the animal without clearing the disclosure with the owners, but she said it's typical for an animal in a Species Survival Plan to be owned by one zoo and live out its life in other zoos.

"One of the things that we need to do prior to animals leaving is do a lot of the paperwork and transfer agreements and contracts and things like that," she said. "But, like I said, it is a cooperative program nationwide, so there's no fighting or anything like that."

Harrison Baldwin and Becca Lambert visited the Chattanooga Zoo on Tuesday afternoon from Nashville. They love zoos and toured the zoo, in part, because of how much they liked the aquarium during their previous visit. While they were by the red panda exhibit, they called the animals adorable and cute.

"We just recently learned from one of the great staff members at the Chattanooga lot about how zoos are not necessarily trading animals, but to protect and conserve species and their natural kind of life cycle, they're moving them around and mating them," Baldwin said in an interview. "So you're not snatching them, stealing them from the wild, from their natural habitat, but people like us are still able to go and enjoy animals."

Angela Moore, 65, lives off Highway 58, and she brought Zendaya Dew, 9, on a day trip to the zoo Tuesday afternoon. She thought having a zoo where kids can learn about animals is important. She was sad to hear Pilatus was moving but happy to know he'll play a part in preserving nature. Zendaya was most excited about the red pandas at the zoo.

"I like how they act and like their looks and stuff," she said.

The announcement of Pilatus' departure came six days after the Chattanooga Zoo posted on social media about the death of its oldest red panda after emergency surgery to remove a gastrointestinal blockage revealed kidney failure, which had rapidly developed.

"We saw a huge reaction on social media, probably one of our biggest posts on Facebook in terms of just the amount of people who saw it," Cash said in a follow-up phone interview. "Overwhelmingly, the response was just positivity and people being just very sympathetic."

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Willa did not recover from the anesthesia, which Cash said is always a risk for animals and humans. The median life span for red pandas of her subspecies is 10 years, and Willa almost lived to 11 years old.

"At the end of the day, we just want to like, raise awareness about the importance of wildlife conservation, give people the opportunity to connect with our animals and love our animals," Cash said.