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Dead panda cub had abnormalities on liver
Source: Agencies |
September 25, 2012, Tuesday
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NATIONAL Zoo officials in Washington said the 6-day-old panda cub that died had abnormalities on its liver and fluid in its abdomen, but they do not yet know the cause of death.
Officials said they believe the cub was female, although they are not completely sure.
They expect to know more once a necropsy is completed within two weeks.
Zoo officials said the 113-gram cub showed no obvious signs of distress before making its final recorded noise on Sunday morning. The cub's mother, Mei Xiang, made an unusual honking sound about 9:17am on Sunday that keepers interpreted as a distress call. Later, one keeper distracted her with honey water while another used an instrument similar to a lacrosse stick to pick up the cub.
The cub was not breathing and its heart had stopped. A veterinarian attempted CPR before it was pronounced dead at 10:28am.
Zoo officials say Mei Xiang has begun to eat again and has come out of her den. They say she is cradling a plastic toy at night in what may be a display of maternal instinct.
The cub's death saddened zoo officials and visitors who had heralded its unexpected arrival.
"This is devastating for all of us here," National Zoo director Dennis Kelly said. "It's hard to describe how much passion and energy and thought and care has gone into this."
Four American zoos have pandas, but Washington's pandas are treated like royalty. The zoo was given its first set of pandas in 1972 as a gift from China to commemorate US President Richard Nixon's historic visit to the country.
Mei Xiang's first cub, Tai Shan, born in 2005, enjoyed enormous popularity before he was returned to China in 2010.
The new cub, born on September 16, had been a surprise at the zoo. Fourteen-year-old Mei Xiang had five failed pregnancies before giving birth.
Panda cubs are especially delicate and vulnerable to infection and other illness. The first weeks of life are critical for the cubs as mothers have to make sure they stay warm and get enough to eat.
Panda mothers are about 1,000 times heavier than their cubs, and sometimes they accidentally crush them. On any given day in the first two weeks of life, cubs have a mortality rate of 17 to 18 percent, zoo officials said.
"The cub was just beautiful. Beautiful little body, beautiful face, with markings just beginning to show around the eye," said Suzan Murray, the zoo's chief veterinarian.
As they did after Tai Shan was born, keepers had been leaving Mei Xiang alone with her offspring, monitoring her on video feeds that were also streamed on the zoo's website. The zoo's first panda couple, Ling Ling and Hsing Hsing, had five cubs during the 1980s, but none lived more than a few days.
Officials said they believe the cub was female, although they are not completely sure.
They expect to know more once a necropsy is completed within two weeks.
Zoo officials said the 113-gram cub showed no obvious signs of distress before making its final recorded noise on Sunday morning. The cub's mother, Mei Xiang, made an unusual honking sound about 9:17am on Sunday that keepers interpreted as a distress call. Later, one keeper distracted her with honey water while another used an instrument similar to a lacrosse stick to pick up the cub.
The cub was not breathing and its heart had stopped. A veterinarian attempted CPR before it was pronounced dead at 10:28am.
Zoo officials say Mei Xiang has begun to eat again and has come out of her den. They say she is cradling a plastic toy at night in what may be a display of maternal instinct.
The cub's death saddened zoo officials and visitors who had heralded its unexpected arrival.
"This is devastating for all of us here," National Zoo director Dennis Kelly said. "It's hard to describe how much passion and energy and thought and care has gone into this."
Four American zoos have pandas, but Washington's pandas are treated like royalty. The zoo was given its first set of pandas in 1972 as a gift from China to commemorate US President Richard Nixon's historic visit to the country.
Mei Xiang's first cub, Tai Shan, born in 2005, enjoyed enormous popularity before he was returned to China in 2010.
The new cub, born on September 16, had been a surprise at the zoo. Fourteen-year-old Mei Xiang had five failed pregnancies before giving birth.
Panda cubs are especially delicate and vulnerable to infection and other illness. The first weeks of life are critical for the cubs as mothers have to make sure they stay warm and get enough to eat.
Panda mothers are about 1,000 times heavier than their cubs, and sometimes they accidentally crush them. On any given day in the first two weeks of life, cubs have a mortality rate of 17 to 18 percent, zoo officials said.
"The cub was just beautiful. Beautiful little body, beautiful face, with markings just beginning to show around the eye," said Suzan Murray, the zoo's chief veterinarian.
As they did after Tai Shan was born, keepers had been leaving Mei Xiang alone with her offspring, monitoring her on video feeds that were also streamed on the zoo's website. The zoo's first panda couple, Ling Ling and Hsing Hsing, had five cubs during the 1980s, but none lived more than a few days.
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