Panda mother crushes her new baby to death
Source: Xinhua |
July 7, 2010, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
A GIANT panda at the Beijing Zoo gave birth to twins last week, but the mother accidentally killed one after abandoning the other, zoo management said yesterday.
The twins, both females, were born on Friday, said Zhang Jinguo, the zoo's deputy president.
Their mother, eight-year-old Yinghua, nursed the first cub and ignored the second, Zhang said.
"Mother pandas are always like that. Twins are rare and all mothers take only the first cub as their own."
The abandoned cub was sent to Sichuan Province to be cared for. It was the lucky one. The new mother, still clumsy and inexperienced, squashed the remaining cub to death in a corner of the pen in the early hours of Saturday, a zoo worker said.
"She had heard the cub crying for milk, and hurriedly turned her giant body around to nurse it," he said.
Video clips from a camera in the pen showed the cub was next to Yinghua and crushed when the mother moved.
Zoo workers had been told to leave the mother and cub alone unless human intervention was needed.
But human intervention came too late. "The cub was bleeding in the right shoulder and its lungs were also injured," Zhang said.
It was the first such tragedy at the Beijing Zoo, where seven giant pandas live in captivity.
"Pandas have poor eyesight. Yinghua apparently didn't see the cub," Zhang said.
The abandoned cub is at a panda research and breeding base in Sichuan Province.
The twins, both females, were born on Friday, said Zhang Jinguo, the zoo's deputy president.
Their mother, eight-year-old Yinghua, nursed the first cub and ignored the second, Zhang said.
"Mother pandas are always like that. Twins are rare and all mothers take only the first cub as their own."
The abandoned cub was sent to Sichuan Province to be cared for. It was the lucky one. The new mother, still clumsy and inexperienced, squashed the remaining cub to death in a corner of the pen in the early hours of Saturday, a zoo worker said.
"She had heard the cub crying for milk, and hurriedly turned her giant body around to nurse it," he said.
Video clips from a camera in the pen showed the cub was next to Yinghua and crushed when the mother moved.
Zoo workers had been told to leave the mother and cub alone unless human intervention was needed.
But human intervention came too late. "The cub was bleeding in the right shoulder and its lungs were also injured," Zhang said.
It was the first such tragedy at the Beijing Zoo, where seven giant pandas live in captivity.
"Pandas have poor eyesight. Yinghua apparently didn't see the cub," Zhang said.
The abandoned cub is at a panda research and breeding base in Sichuan Province.
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