Baby Panda Dead: Details of Shocking Death At Smithsonian National Zoo

Smithsonian's National Zoo staff were shocked to find the precious week old baby panda dead.  Mother panda Mei Xiang cried out in distress one hour before the young cub was pronounced dead on Sunday morning (Sept. 23, 2012).  Just 3 months earlier, a baby panda died in Tokyo as well.

National Zoo Director Dennis Kelly informed reporters, "The keepers, the veterinarians, the volunteers were watching this cub and this birth with great joy (and) with great passion.  The loss, there's no other word for it, it's just devastating."

The death was unexpected as there were no signs of trouble or health issues prior to the death.  Only after the mother panda cried, a veterinarian went to examine the baby panda to find that there was no breath nor heartbeat.  The team tried to bring back life to the cub through CPR and other methods with no success.

The body will be examined further to discover the reason for its death.  

The chief veterinarian of the zoo, Suzan Murray, said, "We're all very anxious to know what happened, but we won't know that for a little while yet."

The young cub did not even have a name yet since it was only 6 days old.  It was born through artificial insemination with Mei Xiang as the mother and Tian Tian as the father.  It was said to be the size of a stick of butter.

Pandas are very precious because there are only 1,900 estimated to be left in this world as it is an endangered species.