An An, a bamboo-eating resident of Hong Kong’s Ocean Park who was known for his feisty, playful nature and who held the accolade as the world’s oldest giant male panda in captivity, died Thursday after health problems. He was 35 – or 105 in human years.
The death, by euthanasia, was announced by the park on its Facebook page, which mourned the loss of its “centennial panda.”
The panda had struggled for weeks with food intake and physical activity, forcing park officials, veterinarians and the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda to put him to sleep.
In the last few days of his life, An An refused solid food and became more sedentary, officials said. He only consumed water and electrolytes, and his diet was a far cry from the daily intake of 30 pounds of bamboo that giant pandas normally eat.
dr. Paolo Martelli, director of veterinary services at Ocean Park, performed the procedure at An An’s park residence, the Hong Kong Jockey Club Sichuan Treasures.
An An arrived in Hong Kong in 1999 with a female companion, Jia Jia. The Guinness World Records listed her as the oldest captive giant panda in 2015. She died in 2016 at the age of 38.
The lifespan of pandas in the wild is usually between 14 and 20 years. Pandas in captivity rarely exceed 30. But there are exceptions. In 2020, Xin Xing, a giant panda who lived at the Chongqing Zoo in southwest China and was famous for burning up to 70 pounds of food a day, died at the age of 38. One year for pandas equals about three for humans, according to an Ocean Park conversion.
While giant pandas were listed as an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 1990, the organization reclassified the bears as “vulnerable” in 2016. Last year there were about 1,800 giant pandas in the wild in China and 500 in captivity worldwide.
There are concerns about the conservation of the animals due to the destruction of their natural habitats, including China’s Yangtze Basin, from infrastructure development, lost forests and climate change.
While the Chinese government has made efforts to preserve the pandas’ natural habitat and has dozens of panda sanctuaries across the country, protections cover only half of their ecosystems, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
As news of An An’s death spread, a torrent of condolences flooded online from the public. Ocean Park Corporation chairman Paulo Pong also mourned the loss, saying in a press release on Thursday that An An “has brought us fond memories of countless heartwarming moments. His cleverness and playfulness will be sorely missed.”
In 2020, Hong Kong’s Ocean Park attracted worldwide attention when two of its other pandas, Ying Ying and Le Le, both 14 at the time, managed to mate naturally after multiple failed attempts since 2010. The park was closed as part of Hong Kong’s efforts to fight the coronavirus, release it from the usual crowds of gapers and, perhaps, give the animals some privacy to mate.