Baby Zoo Panda Dies, Showing Difficulty of Keeping Twins Alive
The National Zoo's strategy of continually swapping the twins between an incubator and their mother wasn't enough to keep one alive.
The smaller of the giant panda twins born in Washington, D.C.'s National Zoo over the weekend has died, the zoo announced Wednesday, illustrating the challenges of keeping panda twins alive.
"This is a hard loss for us," zoo director Dennis Kelly said at a press conference. "It's hard to keep these tiny creatures thriving."
The zoo's panda team had been managing the smaller cub "more intensely" since its mother Mei Xiang rejected attempts to continually swap the cubs in her care, according to the zoo's blog.
Captive panda twins are difficult to keep alive because the mother usually is overwhelmed by caring for two. So zoos have developed a strategy of rotating the twins between mom and an
