One of a pair of red panda cubs born at the Santa Barbara Zoo this month has died, and the other has been moved to an incubator for specialized medical care.
The mortality rate among newborn pandas is high — up to 40%. The zoo intervened with the surviving panda after an examination determined it wasn’t nursing adequately.
It’s now being bottle-fed and is getting around-the-clock care.
Red pandas are native to remote mountains in areas like Nepal, India, and China. Their population has plummeted by 50% during the last few years.
