WASHINGTON
(AP) -- As condolences poured in from around the world, National Zoo
officials waited Monday for word on why a 6-day-old panda cub died and
lamented a heartbreaking setback to their closely watched breeding
program.
The cub had liver abnormalities and
fluid in its abdomen, but a cause of death will not be known until full
necropsy results are available within two weeks.
The
cub, believed to be female, died Sunday morning, less than a week after
its birth surprised and delighted zoo officials and visitors.
Zookeepers had all but given up on the panda mother's chances of
conceiving after six years of failed attempts.
"Every loss is hard," said National Zoo director Dennis Kelly. "This one is especially devastating."
This
much is known: The cub appeared to be in good condition. It had been
drinking its mother's milk. And it wasn't accidentally crushed to death
by its mother, which has happened to other panda cubs in captivity. At
birth, the cubs are hairless, their eyes are closed and they're about
the size of a stick of butter. Their mothers weigh about 1,000 times
more.
Native to China, giant pandas have long
been the face of the movement to preserve endangered species. A few
thousand are believed to remain in the wild, and there are a few hundred
in captivity.
Four American zoos have pandas,
and several cubs have been born in the U.S., but the bears at the
National Zoo are treated like royalty. The zoo was given its first set
of pandas in 1972 as a gift from China to commemorate President Richard
Nixon's historic visit to the country.
Thousands
of people had watched an online video feed of the cub's mother,
14-year-old Mei Xiang, hoping to catch a glimpse of the newborn during
its few days of life. Fans from around the country and the world shared
their sympathy on social media sites, and many said they shared an
emotional connection with the burly, black-and-white bear.
Since
the cub's death, Mei Xiang has started eating and interacting with her
keepers again. She slept Sunday night while cradling a plastic toy in an
apparent show of maternal instinct, Kelly said.
Kelly Parsons of Alexandria, Va., who brought her two young sons to see the pandas Monday, said she felt for Mei Xiang.
"It
sounds like the mom is in mourning. Whether you're a parent to an
animal or a human being, it's just so sad, the loss of a child," she
said.
Mei Xiang's only cub, a male named Tai
Shan, was born in 2005 and became the zoo's star attraction before he
was returned to China in 2010. Since his birth, there had been five
unsuccessful attempts to impregnate Mei Xiang, and zoo officials had
considered swapping her and her male partner, Tian Tian, for another
pair.
Zoo officials said they're focused on
Mei Xiang's health but didn't rule out trying to breed her again. At 14,
she may have a few more years of fertility remaining. The oldest panda
known to have given birth in captivity was 19; pandas can live to their
mid-30s.
The mortality rate for panda cubs in
the wild is unknown, but in captivity, 26 percent of males and 20
percent of females die in their first year. 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.
The new cub's
liver, about the size of a kidney bean, was harder than usual and
discolored, said Suzan Murray, the zoo's chief veterinarian. The fluid
in the cub's abdomen was unusual and could have been a symptom of the
liver problem, she said.
There was no evidence of fluid in the cub's lungs, which would suggest pneumonia.
Because
Mei Xiang's other cub survived and she appeared to be taking good care
of the newborn, zoo officials had been cautiously optimistic. Kelly said
he was not aware of anything that could have been done to improve the
cub's chances of survival.
The staff was
taking the death especially hard because of the work they'd put in over
the past six years to produce another cub, Kelly said. But even those
who only watched Mei Xiang online were heartbroken.
"So
sad watching her!" one Facebook commenter wrote. "She seems quite
distressed and seems like she keeps looking for her baby. Can't figure
out why they don't bring him/her back."
Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
