WASHINGTON – The Smithsonian’s National Zoo announced Wednesday that the smaller of the two panda cubs born over the weekend had died.
The cub’s health had been in jeopardy for several days, particularly the last 48 hours, after its mother, Mei Xiang, refused to give up the larger of the two cubs to care for it.
The zoo announced that the baby panda died shortly after 2 p.m. Eastern time.
“The larger cub appears to be strong, robust, behaving normally and is with mother Mei Xiang,” the zoo added in a brief statement, which promised more information later in the afternoon.
Zoo officials have said that pandas have difficulty caring for two infants at once. To compensate, zookeepers had attempted to swap the cubs out every few hours. But the plan depended on Mei Xiang’s willingness to trade babies.
The zoo said Tuesday that the smaller cub had been rejected by its mother beginning Monday afternoon. The cub refused to be bottle-fed, so zookeepers were using a feeding tube. But the cub was not holding its weight and was regurgitating, the zoo said Tuesday. Neither of the two cubs had been named as it was expected to take several weeks to determine whether they were male or female.
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