WASHINGTON
(AP) -- The giant panda cub born a week ago at the National Zoo in
Washington has died, and it was not immediately known why the animal
died, zoo officials said Sunday.
Zoo officials
said in a press release that the cub was found dead Sunday morning
after panda keepers heard sounds of distress from its mother, Mei Xiang.
Staffers
were able to retrieve the cub about an hour later. The cub appeared to
be in good condition, and there were no outward signs of trauma or
infection.
The cub had been a surprise at the
zoo. Fourteen-year-old Mei Xiang had five failed pregnancies before
giving birth, and only one panda cub has survived at the zoo in the
past.
Panda cubs are born about the size of a
stick of butter and are delicate infants. Panda mothers are about 1,000
times heavier than their cubs, which are born with their eyes closed.
The delicate cubs have died in the past when accidentally crushed by
mom. That happened in two different zoos in China in 2009 and 2010 when
mothers killed their young while attempting to nurse.
The
zoo's first panda couple, Ling Ling and Hsing Hsing, arrived from China
in 1972 and had five cubs during the 1980s, but none lived more than a
few days. One of the cubs was stillborn, two others died of pneumonia
within a day, another died from lack of oxygen after birth, and the
final cub died of an infection after four days.
Panda
experts have said the first weeks of life are critical for the panda
cubs as mothers have to make sure they stay warm and get enough to eat.
"It's
kind of a nerve-racking period for the folks that are monitoring mom
and cub," Rebecca Snyder, the curator of mammals at Atlanta's zoo, said
last week. Atlanta is one of only two other American zoos to have had
cubs.
Atlanta has had three cubs, and the San
Diego zoo has had six, including a cub born this year. A panda couple in
Memphis has yet to have a cub, despite several tries. No other U.S.
zoos have pandas.
The cub had not yet been
named in accordance with Chinese tradition - it was to receive a name
after 100 days on Dec. 24. Had the cub survived until then, it would
have been roughly the size of a loaf of bread and weighed around 10
pounds.
Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
