Giant Panda Cub Dies After 7 Hours, Missed Two Rescue Opportunities?
April 9th, giant panda ‘Lu Lu’, at Shenshiping Panda Center, (born August 10, 2019, female) died due to suffocation from strangulation caused by a climbing rope wrapping around its neck.Around 2:00 AM on the 9th, ‘Lu Lu’ climbed onto a wooden frame with hanging toys in the outdoor playground of the Shenshiping Base Kindergarten and began to struggle as the rope wrapped around its neck. Within a few minutes, the cub stopped struggling and unfortunately died.Due to the late hour and the difficulty in distinguishing the cub’s entangled position from the wooden frame resting position, the night patrol personnel failed to notice the abnormality.
Yesterday, the official Weibo account of the China Giant Panda Protection and Research Center issued a statement, ‘Regarding the death of giant panda ‘Lu Lu’’, from which it can be seen that ‘Lu Lu’ had two missed rescue opportunities: One was in the early hours of the morning, when the night patrol personnel did not find it.
The statement said: ‘Because of the late hour and the difficulty in distinguishing the cub’s entangled position from the wooden frame resting position, the night patrol personnel failed to notice the abnormality.’
The second was in the morning of the same day.The statement said: ‘On the morning of the same day, the management of Shenshiping Base Kindergarten, after visiting the animal feeding point, first observed the cubs in the observation channel, seeing that most panda cubs were resting. Because the dead cub was facing away from the observation area, it was difficult to see its face clearly, and it looked like it was hanging on the wooden frame. Therefore, ‘Lu Lu’ lost a second opportunity to be discovered early.’
The keeper discovered ‘Lu Lu’ with the rope wrapped around its neck and forelimbs at around 9:00 AM when it entered the cat house playground, through contact and observation, it was initially judged to be deadand immediately notified the veterinarian; after veterinary examination, it was determined that the cub had been dead for a period of time, samples were collected for testing.
Fig. from screenshot of China Giant Panda Protection and Research Center official Weibo.In addition, netizens commented: ‘At the time of the incident, it was around 2:00 AM, when the live broadcast was still ongoing, and viewers of the live broadcast saw ‘Lu Lu’ hanging there motionless, they called the China Giant Panda Protection and Research Center, but no one answered. Under the eyes of many people, a giant panda cub left like this, which is really heartbreaking.’
Currently, @China Giant Panda Protection and Research Center said: ‘We are deeply saddened by the departure of giant panda ‘Lu Lu’. This incident also made us fully aware that we have some omissions in giant panda safety management. We will learn from this event and further strengthen the safety inspection and evaluation of enriching items for young giant pandas, and completely eliminate hidden dangers in the park; at the same time, strengthen night patrol duties to prevent such incidents from happening.’
Beijing Daily (ID: Beijing_Daily) comprehensively @China Giant Panda Protection and Research Center, @Ran News etc.
@
IDBeijing_Daily@@
