Tiny Cub, Big Heartbreak

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. “The panda team continues to monitor Mei Xiang and the larger cub. They are encouraged that this cub appears to be strong and behaving normally. We will continue to provide updates across our social media channels with ‪#Pandastory" they said.