WASHINGTON – The National Zoo has released a video of Giant Panda Mei Xiang’s making distress calls after her cub died.
The panda keepers say that the mother created a vocalization commonly made under distress at 9:17 a.m. on Sept 23.
Pathologists at the Smithsonian National Zoo performed an autopsy on the cub, called a necropsy, on Monday. While the final pathology report will provide more detail in the coming weeks, the preliminary report shows levels of fluid in the cub’s abdomen and a hardening of its liver.
The cub, born on Sept. 16, appeared to be female, say zookeepers. She weighed a little less than 4 ounces and pathologists found no sign of trauma to the cub.
The panda team at the National Zoo will continue to monitor Mei Xiang using the .
Since the death of her cub, Mei Xiang has been seen cradling an object, as she did before the birth of the cub. Scientists and keepers say this is a natural reaction to express a mothering instinct.
草莓传媒’s Megan Cloherty contributed to this report. Follow on Twitter.
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