Horrified panda fans ‘watch a cub die of suffocation’ as it ‘hangs off a wooden rack for SEVEN HOURS without being noticed by workers’ at a Chinese breeding centre
- Seven-month-old panda dangled off a wooden rack with a rope around its neck
- The cub struggled and died minutes later, said China’s centre for giant pandas
- The tragedy was said to be live-streamed and witnessed by shocked panda fans
- They accused the centre of neglecting cubs and dodging its responsibility after
Panda lovers have told of their horror after allegedly seeing a cub die of suffocation in an accident while watching a live-streamed video.
The baby panda, nearly eight months old, had dangled off a wooden rack with a rope around its neck for some seven hours before being found by keepers at a breeding centre in Sichuan Province.
The centre said the rope was attached to a toy ball and the cub had wrapped it around its neck while playing by itself in the wee hours on Thursday.
Panda cub Lu Lu Zai was found dead at 9am last Thursday after dangling off a wooden rack for around seven hours, said China’s Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Pandas
Panda fans have accused the centre of neglecting its responsibilities and demanded a thorough investigation.
The tragedy took place at a panda nursery at the Sheshuping base, part of China’s Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Pandas, according to a statement released by the centre on social media.
The statement said the panda, nicknamed Lu Lu Zai, climbed onto a wooden rack to play at around 2am.
It said the cub bound its own body with a rope attached to a toy ball, which was on the rack, and struggled for a few minutes before dying.
The centre’s night-time patrollers did not discover the situation because it was dark and the cub looked like it could be resting, it claimed.
A picture circulating on the internet prompts to show Lu Lu Zai after it died of suffocation
When keepers at the panda kindergarten came to work in the morning, they initially failed to notice the cub’s corpse because the panda ‘was facing the visitors’ area with its back… and looked like it was resting on the wooden rack from afar’, the statement said.
The dead Lu Lu Zai was finally discovered at around 9am after keepers entered the playground and saw the baby panda being tied by a rope around the neck and arms.
Vets said it had died for some time.
The centre said it had been deeply saddened by the passing of Lu Lu Zai.
It vowed to ‘fully recognise’ the oversights in its administration, strengthen its management over panda cubs and ‘thoroughly investigate’ the potential safety hazards in the centre.
It also promised to increase night-time patrolling.
But furious panda fans have accused the base of neglecting its cubs and dodging its responsibilities.
They claimed that some panda fans noticed the abnormal situation while watching videos on live-streaming websites and had repeatedly tried to contact the centre for its attention.
Surveillance footage obtained by state broadcaster CCTV shows Lu Lu Zai dangling off the wooden bars in the wee hours. The base said night-time patrollers thought the cub was resting
On China’s Twitter-like Weibo, one person criticised: ‘The live-streaming [programme] was on all night. Internet users sensed something was wrong and tried to call [the centre]. Nobody answered for seven hours. Were they sleeping while being paid by the country?’
Another panda lover condemned: ‘Some panda fans already discovered abnormality at 2am. We saw this on [the live-streaming site]. Don’t you have 24-hour surveillance?’
A third critic demanded the centre let panda mothers raise their cubs to avoid similar tragedies from happening. The web user accused the centre of ‘treating giant pandas as a means of making money’ and ignoring their life safety.
‘This matter is caused not only by the negligence of workers, but also that of the centre,’ the post said.
Although the panda fans did not name the live-streaming service they used, screengrabs circulating online suggest it could be iPanda, a video platform which specialises in pandas.
The file picture shows a panda born in 2019 posing next to a decoration at the Shenshuping breeding base on January 25. The state-run breeding centre has been blasted by panda fans
According to state media CCTV, the door connecting the cubs’ enclosure and the playground at the Shenshuping base is left open around the clock so baby pandas can come out to play when they want.
Huang Yan, a professor from China’s Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Pandas, told CCTV that wild and captive pandas often play at night.
The state broadcaster said the centre had dismantled the wooden rack to prevent similar accidents from happening.