Female Red Panda Ming Yue at Utica Zoo in New York State passed away on October 11, 2021. A necropsy revealed that the female Panda had contracted acute aspiration pneumonia. This form of pneumonia occurs when saliva, stomach contents or foreign bodies enter the lungs. In addition, the Red Panda suffered from a congenital heart problem.
Ming Yue was born at Prospect Park Zoo in Brooklyn in 2013 and had been at Utica Zoo since 2014. Together with male Red Panda Muse, she provided offspring twice. Most recently in 2019, when she gave birth to twins Xiaobo and Mei Lin.