Mama Panda Crushes Baby

The birth of twin pandas at the Beijing Zoo last week gave way to tragedy when the mother abandoned one and accidentally killed the other. Eight-year-old Yinghua delivered two female cubs, but “twins are rare and all mothers take only the first cub as their own,” the zoo president tells China Daily. Less than a day later, while trying to feed her baby, Yinghua crushed her to death.

“She had heard the cub crying for milk, and hurriedly turned her giant body around to nurse it,” the president says. “Pandas have poor eyesight. Yinghua apparently didn't see the cub,” and crushed her in a corner of the pen. Since the death, Yinghua is clawing up her cage and refuses to eat or drink, AOL News reports. The abandoned cub was sent away to be raised in a panda research and breeding facility.
(More Beijing Zoo stories.)