Giant Panda Cub Suffocates and Dies 7 Hours After Discovery, Missed Two Rescue Opportunities?

On April 9th, giant panda cub ‘Lu Lu Zi’ (born August 10, 2019, female) died due to strangulation caused by entanglement of a swing rope.Around 2:00 AM on the 9th, ‘Lu Lu Zi’ climbed onto a wooden frame with swing toys in the outdoor sports field of the Shenshiping Base Kindergarten and subsequently

the cub wrapped the rope of the swing toy around its neck.It began to struggle, and after several minutes, the cub stopped struggling and unfortunately died.Due to the late hour of the incident and the difficulty in distinguishing between the cub’s resting position and the position wrapped with the rope, the night patrol personnel failed to notice the abnormality.Yesterday, the official Weibo account of the China Giant Panda Protection Research Center issued a statement titled ‘Regarding the death of giant panda cub ‘Lu Lu Zi’’, which indicates that ‘Lu Lu Zi’ had two missed rescue opportunities:

One was in the early hours of the morning, when the night patrol personnel checked and did not find it.

As stated in the statement, due to the late hour and the difficulty in distinguishing between the cub’s resting position and the position wrapped with the rope, the night patrol personnel failed to notice the abnormality.The second was in the morning. The statement said: In the morning, the management of Shenshiping Base Kindergarten visited the animal feeding point and observed the cubs in the observation channel. Seeing that most of the panda cubs were resting, and the dead cub was facing away from the observation area, it was difficult to see its face clearly. Therefore, ‘Lu Lu Zi’ lost the second opportunity to be discovered early.

The keeper only discovered ‘Lu Lu Zi’ with the rope wrapped around its neck and forelimbs approximately at 9:00 when he entered the cat house sports field, and after contact and observation, it was initially judged to have been dead, and then notified the veterinarian; after veterinary examination, it was confirmed that the cub had been dead for a period of time, samples were collected for testing.

Screenshot of the China Giant Panda Protection Research Center’s official Weibo account.In addition, some netizens have reflected that the incident occurred around 2:00 AM, and viewers watching the live broadcast saw ‘Lu Lu Zi’ hanging there without moving, and when they called the China Giant Panda Protection Research Center, no one answered, and under the sight of many people, a giant panda cub left like that, which is really heartbreaking.

Currently, @China Giant Panda Protection Research Center said: We are deeply saddened by the departure of giant panda cub ‘Lu Lu Zi’. This event also fully recognizes that we have some lapses in the safety management of giant pandas. We will draw lessons from this event to further strengthen the safety inspection and evaluation of the enrichment items for young giant pandas, and thoroughly investigate the safety hazards in the park; at the same time, we will strengthen night patrol, to avoid such incidents from happening.

Beijing Daily (ID: Beijing_Daily) Comprehensive @China Giant Panda Protection Research Center, @Yanxin News etc.

Source: Beijing Daily WeChat Official Account.

Producer: Zhang Peng

Editor: Zhang Li, Xu Hao Zhe

Process Editor: Wang Meng Ying