COLCHESTER Zoo has shared a video of a cute new arrival.

The zoo welcomed a female red panda cub in June.

Staff said Mum Liwei was spending a lot of time in one of the nest boxes, only coming out for food, this sparked their keeper’s curiosity and on checking the nest box they noticed a fluffy red cub hiding inside the box.

Dad An An has also been checking in on mum and baby regularly and it was has now also been confirmed the cub is female during her first vet check.

The zoo said: "Red panda cubs' development is quite slow, they open their eyes after 18 days and tend not to emerge from their nest until they are about 10-12 weeks old.

"Recently our new arrival has begun to head outside with mum and we’re excited to see her exploring over the coming few weeks and months.

"Although the Red pandas’ scientific name means ‘fire-coloured cat’, the red panda actually shares more similarities with bears and racoons.

"The red panda is classified as Endangered on the IUCN Red List so our new arrival is very important to the species and to Colchester Zoo."

The zoo shared the video on their Facebook page.