Red Panda Cub Gets Teensy EKG
A clean bill of health for the nine-week-old
Judilee Marrow/Smithsonian's National Zoo
All together now: Awww!
An endangered red panda cub at the National Zoo is healthy, according to vets -- and adorable, according to pretty much everyone.
The zoo's vet staff performed an EKG and a cardiac ultrasound on the nine-week-old yesterday, due to a suspected heart abnormality. Yesterday's exam determined the cub is perfectly healthy.
The exam was almost as cute as a kitten with a cast. Almost.
The cub was born July 9 at the zoo's Conservation and Research Center in Front Royal, Va. Its mother, Panya (yes, that's really her name), wasn't able to produce enough milk, so the cub is now being hand-reared by zookeepers at the main Rock Creek campus.
If there were a line forming to bottlefeed this cub, we would have camped out on Connecticut Avenue weeks ago.
Posted Thursday, Sep 10, 2009 - 3:31 PM EST
