Mei Xiang is innocent! The Washinton Zoo’s giant panda was suspected of inadvertently crushing her baby, but a preliminary necropsy on the cub absolves her:
The giant panda cub that died Sunday morning had uneven coloring and hardness in her liver, officials at the National Zoo in Washington said Monday.
That information came from a preliminary necropsy, but it was not a conclusive cause of the sudden death of the 6-day-old female cub, who was heard grunting just 17 minutes before she was found lifeless, zoo officials said. Final results of a full necropsy will not be available for another two weeks. [NYT]
In light of the high cost and low success rate of captive panda breeding, some conservationists are beginning to wonder whether it’s even worth it.
What kind of quitter talk is that?
The Linnean Society of London is hosting a public forum in October called “Do We Need Pandas?” Future events in this series include: “Do We Need Hugs?” and “Do We Need Sunshine?”
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