Mei Xiang, the female giant panda that lost its baby last month, takes a nap after being fed a frozen fruit treat at the National Zoo. "Yes indeed, Mei Xiang was a good mom who protected her cub and did not crush her," said Dr. Suzan Murray, the zoo's chief veterinarian. Unlike other baby pandas' livers, which are soft and the same color throughout, this cub's liver had patches of hard tissue and had splotches of different coloring, Murray said.  The giant panda cub born a week ago at the National Zoo in Washington died Sunday morning, saddening zoo officials and visitors who had heralded its unexpected arrival. Smith and other zoo officials, who recounted the scene, said Monday that a necropsy performed on the cub’s body showed unusual fluid in its abdomen and irregularities in its liver. The zoo’s chief veterinarian, Suzan Murray, said at a news conference that results of lab tests on tissue samples, expected within the next week or so, could help identify the cause of death. The cub, born Sept. 16, had heart and lungs that appeared normal, suggesting that suffocation was not a factor, Murray said. A veterinarian attempted CPR before it was pronounced dead at 10:28 a.m. 
 
 "This is devastating for all of us here," National Zoo director Dennis Kelly said at a news conference. the loss of this animal, but it’s also the loss of all that wonder that we were about to be a part of,” she said. Kelly said it was too soon to know if the zoo would attempt to breed Mei Xiang again. Beautiful little body, beautiful face, with markings just beginning to show around the eye," Murray said. It was turned off on Sunday following the cub's death. Murray and Kelly said the cradling behavior is one sign that Mei Xiang has not transitioned away from the mothering role. Kelly said Monday he had not had a chance to think much about the future. Four American zoos have pandas, but Washington's pandas are treated like royalty. One of the cubs was stillborn; two others died of pneumonia within a day; another died from lack of oxygen after birth; and the final cub died of an infection after four days. As they did after Tai Shan was born, keepers had been leaving Mei Xiang alone with her offspring, monitoring her on video feeds that were also streamed on the zoo's website.
– Mei Xiang, the giant panda at Washington's National Zoo who lost her cub yesterday, "was a good mom who protected her cub and did not crush her," says the zoo’s chief veterinarian today. Preliminary necropsy findings did not reveal a cause of death, but did indicate that the tiny 6-day-old cub, a girl, had excess fluid in her abdomen and that parts of her liver were hard or had strange coloring, ABC News reports. She appeared to have been nursing successfully before her death. Additional tests could identify a cause of death within a week, the Washington Post adds. Mei Xiang seems to be coping, but is cradling a toy in place of her cub, which indicates she still sees herself as a mother. As for the cub's father, Tian Tian is "blissfully unaware" of the death, the chief vet says. Zookeepers had been hearing the cub's healthy squeals for a week, but when they heard Mei Xiang's distressed cries, they knew something was very wrong. They distracted Mei Xiang by splashing honey water and retrieved the cub. A vet attempted to intubate the cub, but her airway was too small, so the vet massaged her heart for 10 minutes before it became clear she would not revive. "The cub was just beautiful," says an emotional chief vet. "Beautiful little body. Beautiful face, with the markings just beginning to show around the eye. Couldn’t have been more beautiful." The zoo director says the entire staff is grieving, and calls the loss "devastating." The cub had not been given a name, in keeping with Chinese tradition, and will not be named posthumously, the AP notes.