Heartbreaking! Panda Cub ‘Lu Lu’ Dies While Playing, Found 7 Hours After Death

On April 10th, @China Panda Breeding Research Center released a statement about the death of panda cub ‘Lu Lu’.

2020 April 9th,The panda cub ‘Lu Lu’ at the Shenshiping Base of the Panda Center (born August 10, 2019, female) died due to strangulation caused by the hanging rope wrapping around its neck.

Image/@People's Daily Online

Around 2:00 AM on the 9th, ‘Lu Lu’ climbed onto a wooden frame with hanging toys in the outdoor playground of the Shenshiping Base Kindergarten and then wrapped the rope of the hanging toy around its body, starting to struggle. After several minutes, the cub stopped struggling and unfortunately died.Due to the late night incident and the difficulty in distinguishing the cub's position wrapped around the frame from the night shift patrol personnel, no abnormalities were detected.In the morning, after the kindergarten feeding staff visited the feeding point, they observed most panda cubs resting and did not find any abnormalities (the deceased cub was facing away from the viewing area and could not be clearly seen from a distance, it looked like it was hanging on the frame). The feed staff discovered ‘Lu Lu’s’ rope wrapped around its neck and forelimbs after entering the cat house playground at around 9:00 and, after contact and observation, initially judged it to be dead, and promptly notified the veterinarian; after examination by the veterinarian, samples were collected for testing.

We are deeply saddened by the departure of panda cub ‘Lu Lu’. This incident also fully recognizes that we have certain omissions in the safety management of pandas. We will learn from this incident, further strengthen the safety inspection and evaluation of the enriched items for young pandas, and thoroughly eliminate security hazards in the park; at the same time, strengthen night patrol, avoid such incidents from happening.