The Santa Barbara Zoo announcing the loss of one of its two-week-old red panda cubs.
The cub was the child of two first time parents named Ruby and Raj. Ruby gave birth to two cubs on July 2.
The zoo says its employees monitor red panda cubs very closely, particularly in the first few weeks of life. They say while Ruby displayed normal and attentive maternal behaviors, the first few weeks and months of a red panda’s life are the most vulnerable.
Red pandas have an infant mortality rate of 40%. The zoo will be investigating the cause of death.
The surviving cub was moved to an incubator after a routine examination determined it was not nursing well enough and needed to be bottle fed. That cub still receives around- the-clock care from veterinary staff.
The Vice President of Animal Care and Health at the zoo calls the loss of the red panda cub “heartbreaking” and says the zoo is now focused on taking care of Ruby and the surviving cub.
The red panda is classified as an endangered species. It’s wild population has plummeted by roughly 50% over the last few decades.
Experts estimate that fewer than 10,000 red pandas (and potentially as few as 2,500) remain in the wild. The decline is driven by several factors including poaching and rapid deforestation.
As a result, the remaining red pandas are forced to live in high altitude mountain forests.