Pandas Are Lousy Parents

Its no wonder this animal is quickly going extinct. Pandas refuse to have sex, and if they do, they produce offspring that is ridiculously fragile compared to other animals of comparable size.

In this case, a Panda mom drops her kid and then rolls over on it. This headline says that the Panda Mom is “inconsolable.” I wonder if that means that she will have to be put down? And no word on whether or not the remaining panda baby will be put into protective custody of a more responsible animal. And yes, this is a picture of a baby panda… Not something else.

From Reuters here:

Panda inconsolable after crushing newborn twin

BEIJING (Reuters) -Staff at a zoo in southwest China are in mourning after a sleep-deprived panda dropped her two-day-old baby and crushed it to death, local media reported on Friday.

“It was very sudden, but also unavoidable,” Guo Wei, panda department chief at Chongqing city zoo in the southwestern region of Chongqing, told the Chongqing Business News daily.

Ya Ya, a seven-year-old panda and new mother of twins, “appeared tired” when nursing the younger cub in a patch of grass, the paper said.

Her head sagged, her paws separated and her baby fell to the ground next to her. The panda then rolled on to her side and crushed her baby beneath her.

This animal will not be able to thrive in the wild. As a species, it will only ever thrive with the help of mankind, in zoos.

Here is a video of a panda that was able to get its baby past the newborn phase, but as you can see, it still seems to take no responsibility for the child. Click on the photo or here to see the video.