National Zoo panda gives birth to second stillborn cub
National Zoo panda gives birth to second stillborn cub, A day after giant panda Mei Xiang delivered a live cub at the National Zoo in Washington she gave birth to a second cub that was stillborn, zoo officials said.
Pandas frequently have cubs in pairs and zoo employees had been waiting for a second delivery, The Washington Post reported Saturday. By the time the cub emerged, 26 hours after the first, they had decided a second one was unlikely.
Mei Xiang spent more than 15 minutes grooming and stroking the tiny corpse before allowing it to fall to the floor, zookeepers said. A device was used to grab the cub for a necropsy.
The cub was not fully developed, keepers said.
The first cub appeared to be healthy Saturday. Attempts to get it away from Mei Xiang for a quick checkup were unsuccessful, with the panda refusing to be distracted.
"There always is a danger when you're around an animal that weighs 240-some-odd pounds and has a jaw that can break a piece of bamboo," Marty Dearie, the panda keeper, said. "She is an animal that can cause damage if she needs to."
In contrast to its giant mother, the cub is the size of a stick of butter.
Mei Xiang gave birth to a male cub, Tai Shan, in 2005. He was sent to a breeding program in China in 2010.
In September last year she bore a female who died six days after birth.
Pandas frequently have cubs in pairs and zoo employees had been waiting for a second delivery, The Washington Post reported Saturday. By the time the cub emerged, 26 hours after the first, they had decided a second one was unlikely.
Mei Xiang spent more than 15 minutes grooming and stroking the tiny corpse before allowing it to fall to the floor, zookeepers said. A device was used to grab the cub for a necropsy.
The cub was not fully developed, keepers said.
The first cub appeared to be healthy Saturday. Attempts to get it away from Mei Xiang for a quick checkup were unsuccessful, with the panda refusing to be distracted.
"There always is a danger when you're around an animal that weighs 240-some-odd pounds and has a jaw that can break a piece of bamboo," Marty Dearie, the panda keeper, said. "She is an animal that can cause damage if she needs to."
In contrast to its giant mother, the cub is the size of a stick of butter.
Mei Xiang gave birth to a male cub, Tai Shan, in 2005. He was sent to a breeding program in China in 2010.
In September last year she bore a female who died six days after birth.
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