Red panda cub, pictured two weeks ago. (via.)

Aw, man. Very sad news to report from the National Zoo today — a three-week-old red panda cub has died. A zookeeper found the cub yesterday during an evening inspection. The Zoo’s press release indicates that the extreme heat was likely not the reason the cub died; rather, red panda cubs just have a shockingly high mortality rate (50 percent!) in captivity. The cub was the first red panda to be born at the Zoo in 15 years, and the first-born for the Zoo’s adult red pandas, Shama and Tate.