Update | ‘Cover-up’ of Henan panda's death casts suspicion on zoo
Staff member admits zoo official lied that animal was 'sent back to Sichuan base', because they lacked information and were shocked by death at the time
A Henan zoo’s contradictory explanations on why a panda it borrowed had gone missing from its pen – and which later turned out to have fallen fatally ill – has raised questions about the real circumstances of its death.
Jin Yi, a panda aged six and a half, had died on February 9 of stomach bleeding, the Zhengzhou Zoo in Henan province announced on its official microblog account on Thursday.
But the zoo had claimed on Monday – a day after its supposed death – that the panda was returned to its parent base. Asked if the animal had died because it was not seen at its cage for days, Li Chaojun, a section head of the zoo, told Dahe Daily newspaper on February 10 that it was sent back to the Wolong Nature Reserve in Sichuan province for breeding.
We are also shocked and deeply saddened by its sudden death, and had not yet found out why it died when the reporter called us
The animal, the other half of a pair of pandas Zhengzhou got on loan in May 2011, disappeared from public view as early as last Sunday.
An employee at the zoo, surnamed Xu, admitted to the South China Morning Post that Li had lied about the incident because staff could not explain the cause of death at the time.
“We are also shocked and deeply saddened by its sudden death, and had not yet found out why it died when the reporter called us,” Xu said.
A staff member from the WWF-backed China Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Panda, surnamed Han, confirmed to the Post that the panda's remains were cremated, noting that the cremation took place after they took samples for testing.