Red panda mom dies weeks after loss of newborn cubs at California zoo

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Set us as preferred A 2-year-old red panda named Ruby died at the Santa Barbara Zoo this week, weeks after the deaths of her two newborn cubs.Director of Animal Care Kristen Wieners said Ruby had shown signs of distress last weekend.She was brought to the zoo’s animal hospital and underwent extensive testing, but her condition declined rapidly.

She died Wednesday morning.“Despite our best efforts, we couldn’t pull her through that,” Wieners shared Thursday in a video message on Instagram.The zoo believes that Ruby had Addison’s disease — an often undetected endocrine disorder that affects the body’s production of hormones like cortisol — and that the “physiological stress of pregnancy, birth, and lactation” sent her into crisis.“Coming so soon after the loss of her newborn cubs, this is a devastating blow to our entire Zoo family,” the Facebook post read.“While pathology is underway to better understand her illness, veterinary teams do not believe her condition was connected to that earlier loss.”Ruby’s two cubs were born on July 2 and were the first red pandas born at the zoo in more than 30 years.

But the first weeks of a red panda’s life are fragile, with a mortality rate of roughly 40% for cubs under 1 year of age.The first cub died at 2 weeks after it became lethargic, stopped nursing and was removed from Ruby’s care into a temperature-controlled incubator to receive intervention from veterinary teams.

The second cub died at 3 weeks after he was also removed from Ruby’s care for hand-raising “due to inadequate nursing by the cub,” the zoo said in a statement.Preliminary testing showed significant fluid around the cub’s heart and some congestion of the lungs.

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