There’s a reason why there’s only one photo of a panda in my deviantART gallery. They annoy me a little bit. If you visit the gift shop at the National Zoo, you’ll be confronted by a solid wall of panda merchandise. Oh, you want a tiger toy? How about a monkey, or a naked mole rat? Too bad. You get a panda. Yeah, okay, there are benefits to helping pandas, but not all conservationists agree that all the money spent on conserving pandas is worth it. In summary, some think that the focus should be on habitat conservation; spending millions on captive breeding is a waste when there’s no wild left to release them into.

Pandas are a symbol for conservation. They’re cute, and many people love them. I do hope that pandas can convince people that conservation is important, and maybe they’ll go on to consider some of the lesser-known, less cute species. Like frogs. Okay, I’m probably biased. But check out this long list of why it’s important to save the frogs. From their website: “Amphibian populations have been rapidly disappearing worldwide and nearly one-third of the world’s amphibian species are on the verge of extinction. Up to 200 species have completely disappeared since 1979.” Frogs are integral parts of their ecosystems, and bioindicators that show the overall health of the planet. I worry that frogs, among other species, get overshadowed by pandas.

When I heard the news a week ago that Mei Xiang and Tian Tian had given birth at the National Zoo, I had mixed feelings. The odds of their success were less than 10 percent, which makes a resulting baby awesome regardless of the species. And I kind of love how absurdly excited people get about panda cubs. Yeah, they’ll crowd into the zoo and block my views and accidentally shove me while I’m trying to hold my camera steady, but maybe after they see the pandas they’ll venture into a part of the zoo they’ve never been to before. Maybe they’ll watch in awe as the giant octopus gets fed. Maybe they’ll see that there’s more to the zoo than pandas.

And today I heard that the cub was found dead this morning. “There were no external signs of trauma, no signs of clinical illness or disease, nor had we seen anything that in the last few days or the past 24 hours to indicate that anything was wrong.” I may be conflicted about the resources that go into panda conservation and the huge presence they have at the zoo and in environmentalism, but I wish this cub had had a chance at life. I would have liked to meet him or her.

Good night, little panda. Sleep well.