Less than a month after her two red panda cubs died, Ruby, their 2-year-old mother has also died, the Santa Barbara Zoo announced Thursday on Instagram.
“I am here to share the tremendously sad news that today we lost our female red panda Ruby,” said Kristen Wieners, director of animal care.
Wieners said over the weekend the animal care team observed that Ruby needed extra care
“She was brought into our animal hospital where she received the best care possible, including bringing in outside specialists,” Wieners said. “Despite our best efforts we couldn’t pull her through that.”
In the text of the report, the zoo said that preliminary diagnostics indicate Ruby had Addison’s disease, a rare endocrine disorder that affects the body’s ability to produce essential hormones such as cortisol.
“Although documented in red pandas, the condition can be difficult to detect because animals often show few or no signs in its early stages.”
The post states that Ruby was “likely in the very early, undetectable stages of the disease, and the extreme physiological stress of pregnancy, birth and lactation, likely triggered an acute Addisonian crisis.”
The death comes after the loss of her two red panda cubs in July. Infant red pandas have a mortality rate around 40%.
“This is a devastating blow to our entire Zoo family,” the post states. “While the pathology is underway to better understand her illness, veterinary teams do not believe her condition was connected to that earlier loss.”
