It's so heartbreaking! The Toronto Zoo has been spreading bad news that a red panda cub and a giraffe have died one after another!
On Thursday (August 1), a post from the Toronto Zoo said that a red panda cub born in June at the zoo had died.
"As we shared with the zoo community, the first few months of life for red pandas are a critical period, highlighting the vulnerability of this species, both in human care and in the wild," the post reads. ”
In June, Sakura, a 10-year-old female panda at the Toronto Zoo, gave birth to two red panda cubs. Soon after, Sakura began to experience serious health problems, which is not uncommon for an elderly red panda. However, Sakura began to experience abnormal activity and was not producing enough milk. For the health of the pups, the zoo began artificial supplemental feeding earlier this week.
But the smaller of the two pups was not in good shape, and the staff found that it did not want to eat and drink, and it did not feel like it had any calories to the touch. The zoo moved the cub to an incubator in the intensive care unit, but it died before it was six weeks old.
The autopsy results showed that the pup had no fat reserves. In addition, the little one's intestines have two sussusceptions, which means that one of his intestines slides into the adjacent part, blocking or reducing the passage of food.
The survival rate of offspring of red pandas in the wild and in human care is low, with only about 40% of cubs surviving their first birthday.
The zoo team is currently looking at the remaining female cub, who looks healthy but still needs to be observed to know if it will survive the first year of high risk.
Due to her physical condition, Sakura and the remaining cubs will not be visible to visitors for a while.
That's not the only heartbreaking thing at the Toronto Zoo in recent times. Last week, a two-year-old Maasai giraffe named Matumaini, also known as Matu, died in a castration operation planned by the zoo. The preliminary pathology report found that the cause of death was "rumination and inhalation of rumen contents".
In a statement, the zoo said: "Our team has spent months carefully planning this surgery and has done an excellent job. As we said yesterday, we know that any surgery under general anesthesia carries risks, especially for large vertebrates. ”
The zoo said the decision to castrate the giraffe was made because keepers wanted it to stay with its mother and sisters, not to leave it isolated. In order to do this, it must be castrated.
The Maasai giraffe is an endangered animal, with fewer than 35,000 giraffes in the wild. The zoo says the wild population of these giraffes has declined by 50% over the past 30 years, mainly due to hunting and habitat loss.