Giant Panda Cub ‘Lu Lu’ Suffocates After Being Entangled by Toy Rope
On April 9th, female giant panda cub “Lu Lu”, born on August 10, 2019, died in Shenshiping Base due to strangulation caused by entanglement of a playground ball rope around its neck.
Around 2:00 AM on the 9th, “Lu Lu” climbed onto a wooden frame with playground balls alone in the outdoor sports field of Shenshiping Base Kindergarten, and then the cub wrapped the rope of the ball toy around its body.The cub began to struggle, and after several minutes, the cub stopped struggling and unfortunately died.Due to the late night incident and it was difficult to distinguish between the cub’s resting posture and the posture on the wooden frame, the night patrol personnel failed to notice the abnormality.Yesterday, the official Weibo of the China Giant Panda Protection Research Center issued a statement – “Regarding the death of giant panda cub “Lu Lu”.
On April 9, 2020, female giant panda cub “Lu Lu”, born on August 10, 2019, died in Shenshiping Base due to entanglement of a playground ball rope around its neck. Around 2:00 AM on the 9th, “Lu Lu” climbed onto a wooden frame with playground balls alone in the outdoor sports field of Shenshiping Base Kindergarten, and then the cub wrapped the rope of the ball toy around its body. The cub began to struggle, and after several minutes, the cub stopped struggling and unfortunately died.
Due to the late night incident and it was difficult to distinguish between the cub’s resting posture and the posture on the wooden frame, the night patrol personnel failed to notice the abnormality.In the morning, the kindergarten staff at Shenshiping Base Kindergarten first checked the cubs in the sports field at a distance, seeing that most of the panda cubs were resting and did not find anything unusual (the dead cub was facing away from the viewing area, making it difficult to see its face, and looked like it was hanging on the wooden frame), and then discovered “Lu Lu”’s neck and forelimbs wrapped around the rope of the ball toy.
After contacting and observing, the staff judged that the cub had been dead for a period of time and immediately notified the veterinarian; after examination by the veterinarian, samples were collected for testing.We are deeply saddened by the departure of giant panda cub “Lu Lu”. This incident also made us fully aware that we have certain omissions in the safety management of giant pandas. We will learn from this incident and further strengthen the safety inspection and assessment of enriched items for young giant pandas, completely eliminate safety hazards in the park; at the same time, strengthen night patrol duties to prevent such incidents from happening.Source: Beijing Evening News WeChat Public Account @China Giant Panda Protection Research Center, @Yanxin News.
Executive Producer: Zhang Peng
