Smithsonian's National Zoo

Watch what happens when Mei Xiang tries to take a bathroom break. The giant panda mother started putting her cub down Thursday night and making attempts to leave the den. She tried leaving twice, once at 10:20 PM and again at 11:55 PM, but her trip was cut short very loud squealing.

The first of impossibly small panda twins born on Saturday at the National Zoo died yesterday. Mei Xiang hadn’t rejected the cub but since Monday afternoon she refused to surrender the bigger cub. The plan was to swap the twins every four hours so Mei was caring for one of the babies at all times while the other was being looked after by zoo staff.

Here’s video of Mei Xiang giving birth over the weekend to the first of two Giant Panda cubs at 5:35 PM and a big surprise a few hours later at 10:07 PM on Saturday. Interest was so great that the famous “panda cam” at the Smithsonian's National Zoo crashed its web page.