Fighting panda extinction

Despite humanity's best efforts, the evolutionarily-challenged panda still seems intent on slouching into extinction.

Reuters reports:

BEIJING (Reuters) -Staff at a zoo in southwest China are in mourning after a sleep-deprived panda dropped her two-day-old baby and crushed it to death, local media reported on Friday. ...

Ya Ya, a seven-year-old panda and new mother of twins, "appeared tired" when nursing the younger cub in a patch of grass, the paper said.

Her head sagged, her paws separated and her baby fell to the ground next to her. The panda then rolled on to her side and crushed her baby beneath her.

The tragedy [!] occurred because she hadn't slept or eaten properly since giving birth, Guo [Wei, panda department chief at Chongqing city zoo] said, adding that Ya Ya lacked motherhood experience. ...

Pandas who lose their young tend to be depressed for a month or so," Guo said, adding that the zoo would assign people to care for her and provide special food to improve her mood.

Somehow, I think there are humans who will mourn longer than Ya Ya. [You don't think it's a tragedy when a panda cub dies tragically? --ed.] I think there are people who want us to think it is, and those people seem to be replete in the media. They seem to suggest that anytime the panda suffers a setback in its struggle to survive then all mankind should feel sufficiently morose. [You don't? --ed.] No!

Animals simply die, and they do their darndest to kill each other if you let them. I can understand if a zookeeper feels disappointment when losing an animal, but, really, an entire zoo "in mourning"? That's a bit too much of the anthropomorphization.