Heartbreaking! 8-Month-Old Panda Cub Dies After Suffocation While Playing
On the evening of April 10th, the official Weibo account of the China Giant Panda Protection Research Center issued a message: On that day, the panda ‘Lu Lu Zi’ (born August 10, 2019, female) died of asphyxiation due to the climbing rope wrapping around its neck at the Shenshiping Base.
Around 2:00 AM on April 9th, ‘Lu Lu Zi’ climbed onto a wooden frame with climbing toys in the outdoor playground of the Shenshiping Base Kindergarten and then the cubs wrapped the rope attached to the climbing toys around its body, beginning to struggle. Within a few minutes, the cub stopped struggling and unfortunately died.
Due to the late-night incident and the difficulty in distinguishing the cub’s wrapping posture from its resting posture on the wooden frame, the night patrol personnel failed to notice the abnormality.
In the morning of April 9th, the kindergarten feed staff visited the feed point and checked the playground for young cubs at a distance, seeing that most panda cubs were resting and did not notice anything unusual. The staff explained that at that time, ‘Lu Lu Zi’ was facing away from the visiting area and could not see its face clearly, making it difficult to observe from a distance.
The feed staff discovered ‘Lu Lu Zi’ with the rope wrapped around its neck and forelimbs at about 9:00 AM on April 9th after entering the cat house playground. Through contact and observation, it was initially judged to be dead, and then notified the veterinarian, who verified the cub's death after taking samples for examination.
It is reported that the China Giant Panda Protection Research Center is the largest giant panda protection research institution in the world. As of the end of 2019, the number of captive giant pandas raised in the center had reached 313, accounting for more than 50% of the global captive giant panda population. The center currently has four bases in Bifengxia, Qingchengshan, Shenshiping and Huaihua, raising 182 pandas.
We are deeply saddened by the departure of the giant panda ‘Lu Lu Zi’,This incident also fully recognizes that we have certain lapses in giant panda safety management. We will learn from this incident andfurther strengthen the safety inspection and evaluation of enriched items for young giant pandas, thoroughly investigate security hazards in the park; at the same time, strengthen nighttime patrol, avoid the occurrence of such events.
Source: Sichuan Daily, China Giant Panda Protection Research Center
