The world’s longest-living male giant panda under human care, An An, has died at the age of 35, the Hong Kong zoo where he spent most of his life said Thursday.
An An’s health had deteriorated in recent weeks, with a severe decrease in physical activity and appetite, and he was euthanised by veterinarians early Thursday morning, a statement from the amusement park and zoo Ocean Park said.
The park said he was equivalent to 105 in human years, and that “the difficult decision” to put him down had been made for welfare reasons in consultation with Chinese experts.
Born in the wild of mainland China’s Sichuan province, An An was one of a panda pair gifted to Hong Kong by Beijing to celebrate the second anniversary of the city’s handover from Britain in 1999.
He and his mate Jia Jia spent the rest of their lives in Ocean Park.
They were a venerable pair — Jia Jia held the Guinness World Records for the oldest living panda and oldest panda ever in captivity when she died at the age of 38 in 2016.
A panda’s average life span in the wild is 14-20 years, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
After Jia Jia’s death, her surviving mate led a rather solitary life — in 2021, he celebrated his 35th birthday alone with a Haagen-Dazs fruit and bamboo ice cake, surrounded by a number of handmade birthday cards from the Park’s staff.
Pandas are notoriously bad at reproducing, especially in captivity.
They are categorized as “vulnerable” by WWF with a record of 1,864 living in the wild.
