Baby Panda Dies in Washington D.C.

Earlier today a baby panda that was just a week old died at the National Zoo in Washington D.C. This was a sad occasion because it was the first pregnancy that Mei Ziang had resulted in a live birth since 2005. In the past seven years she has had five failed pregnancies. The baby weighed only four ounces and there were no obvious signs of trauma when the baby was retrieved from the care of its mother about an hour after its final recorded sounds. The veterinarians at the zoo will do a necropsy to determine the final cause of death, but results will not be out until Monday at the earliest.

Pandas are a rare breed of animals that have a lot of trouble reproducing both in zoos and in the wild. This makes the loss of this baby panda even more sad. Because the baby panda was not yet 100 days old, as per Chinese tradition, it was not yet named. The zoo is now unsure if they will try to breed Mei Ziang again. "Baby Panda Dies at National Zoo" was written by Ben Nuckols and published today in The Huffington Post.