Toronto Zoo's red panda who gave surprise birth to two cubs in June dies

A 10-year-old female red panda who recently gave birth to two cubs at the Toronto Zoo in June has died.

In a social media post on Thursday, the zoo said Sakura passed away this week, and preliminary results found that the red panda, who had faced health challenges in the past few months, experienced a cardiac arrest.

“An MRI scan of her brain did not reveal the cause of her neurological signs. However, we do not know if this was a primary heart event or something systemic that led to cardiac arrest and thus, we are doing extra testing to figure that out,” the Toronto Zoo said in the post.

Sakura’s death came just three weeks after one of her cubs passed away. The 10-year-old red panda moved to the Toronto Zoo from the Greater Vancouver Zoo earlier this year for retirement.

Staff were later surprised to learn that Sakura was pregnant. She gave birth to two red panda cubs on June 13.

Toronto Zoo said its focus is now caring for the remaining two-month-old cub, who they named “Biggie.”

The facility noted that staff had been giving supplemental feedings to the cub since Sakura’s health deteriorated. The zoo added that Biggie has put on weight rapidly on formula.

“While we feel confident we are doing our best to help this cub grow, it should be noted that we continue to be cautiously optimistic as the first year of a red panda cub’s life is the most challenging,” the zoo said.

“Wildlife care staff are now providing all care for Biggie and are planning to keep her in her current habitat as she is familiar with the space, and it is all set up as needed for biosecurity, environmental parameters, feeding, and monitoring.”