THE WORLD’s oldest male panda has died from cancer aged 31, zoo keepers said.
Beloved giant panda Pan Pan, whose name means “hope” in Chinese, was a prolific father, and leaves behind over 130 descendants – a quarter of all the captive-bred pandas on Earth.
Giant pandas are notorious for their low reproductive rate, which is a key contributing factor to their status as a threatened species.
Writing on its social media account, the centre said: “In the past three days, Pan Pan's condition rapidly deteriorated, losing consciousness and the ability to move and eat.
"He left us forever after rescue efforts by medical personnel proved futile.
“We hope that there is no more suffering from illness in heaven."
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Speaking to official news agency Xinhua, zoo keeper Tan Chengbin said: “Pan Pan was the equivalent to about 100 human years.”
Wild pandas generally live to around 20 years of age, with those in captivity generally going on to live longer.
Pan Pan was born in the wilderness of the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan in 1985, before being taken into captivity.
The world’s oldest giant panda is a 36-year-old female named Basi, who lives in Fuzhou Panda World in Fuzhou, China.
Recent estimates put the number of adult giant pandas living in the wild at 1,864 – up by over a sixth in just 10 years.
Zoologists say the increase in nature reserves, bamboo planting, farmer subsidies, and commercial programmes are responsible for the rise.
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