Tiny Panda Dies; Hopes for Another Birth at Zoo Fade

Despite medical care that matched the best efforts to save a premature human baby, a tiny, sickly panda cub died at the National Zoo early Sunday morning.

The death of the little cub also cast serious doubt on the likelihood that a giant panda will ever be raised in a U.S. zoo.

Ling-Ling, the one female panda given by Chinese officials to the United States in 1972, is now 20 years old and has lost all five cubs born at the zoo. Her pregnancy this year was considered remarkable in itself because no other panda of her age had been known to give birth.

“If we are very lucky, she may breed at 21 years of age,” a disappointed zoo director Michael Robinson said Sunday.

Medical Efforts

Veterinarians who worked for 40 hours to save the little cub said he died of an infection contracted from his mother.

The 3.1-ounce cub, smaller than a stick of butter, was put in an oxygen-filled incubator, administered antibiotics and fed liquids through a tube. The tiny cub rallied briefly on Saturday, but finally died of the infection before 1 a.m. Sunday.

The chief culprit appears to be a recurring urinary tract infection in the mother panda, Dr. Mitchell Bush, the zoo’s chief veterinarian, said Sunday.

Two years ago, a newborn cub nearly twice as large as this year’s offspring lived four days but died of an infection. Since then, zoo officials have sought to disinfect the panda house at the zoo and inject the female with periodic doses of antibiotics. But the mother’s infection returned in recent weeks.

Shortly after the little cub emerged squealing on Friday, zoo officials anesthetized the mother and removed the cub, hoping to build its immune system to ward off infection. Instead, they discovered the new cub was already badly infected, and it did not have strength to survive.

“I still think it’s possible we can raise a cub” in captivity, Bush said. “This one was infected and small, even for a premature one. Just give us a normal size cub and no infection,” he said.

A twin to this cub was spontaneously aborted two weeks ago.

Ling-Ling and her mate, Hsing-Hsing, 19, are the only giant pandas on permanent display in the United States. In their early years together, the two suffered from what zoo officials called “inadequate mating skills.” Since 1983, however, the two have mated nearly every year, but all of the cubs have died at or shortly after birth.

Only about 1,000 giant pandas are believed to be living wild in the mountains of central China. Pandas have been bred artificially in zoos in Tokyo, Mexico City and Madrid, but the National Zoo’s pair are the only ones trying to breed naturally, according to zoo officials.