Baby Pandas Saved by Human Breast Milk
B E I J I N G, July 4 -- A Chinese woman who had justgiven birth saved two neglected week-old panda cubs bysupplying them milk, the official Xinhua news agency reportedtoday.
The two cubs, ignored by their mother since they were bornlast week, had been fed by zookeepers in the eastern city ofHangzhou with glucose and milk, but it would have been hard forthe rare animals to survive without mothers' milk, it said. So the zookeepers asked the Hangzhou Daily newspaper forhelp.
'We Were at Our Wits' End'
"I dashed out of my office and ran all the way to theobstetric section of the nearest hospital," the news agencyquoted journalist Xie Fangshe as writing in Tuesday's edition. "There were not many deliveries at the hospital...and onlyone of the young mothers was up to the requirements. But shehad breast-fed her baby just before we arrived," Xie wrote. "We were at our wits' end." "Fortunately, the head nurse helped milk the mother throughmassage and we got enough colostrum in only 10 minutes," shewrote. "Back at the zoo, we saw the two baby pandas go quietly tosleep as they drank happily through a straw," said Xie. The giant panda is found only in China and there may be asfew as 1,000 left in the wild.
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