World’s oldest captive giant panda dies

Ripe old age — Xin Xing celebrates her 38th birthday with a meal of fruit

Credit: Shutterstock

She leaves behind at least 150 descendants around the world — plus legions of fans, and one doting zookeeper.

Xin Xing — the world’s oldest giant panda and a matriarch extraordinaire — has died at the grand age of 38.

The Chinese-born bear was one of the most famous of her species after giving birth to at least ten cubs during her lifetime.

It made her the chief ambassador of China’s so-called "panda diplomacy", with her cubs and their offspring sent to grateful zoos around the world.

She is thought to have had 153 descendants in all, including grandchildren and great-grandchildren, living variously in the USA, Canada and Taiwan.

As well as being a record-breaking mother — most pandas struggle to conceive in captivity – Xin Xing was among only a handful of pandas in zoos to have lived beyond the age of 30. 

Being aged 38 made her the equivalent of at least 110 in human years.

Xin Xing — whose name in Mandarin translates as "New Star" — was born in a panda sanctuary in China’s Sichuan Province, and transferred to a zoo in the south-western city of Chongqing at the age of one.

She was among some 600 giant pandas in captivity, roughly a quarter of the total population. Zookeepers remember her for a prodigious appetite — she could eat 70lbs of bamboo shoots and fruit per day — and occasional fiery temper.

However, according to Zhang Naicheng, her keeper for the last 28 years of her life, she grew more placid in her dotage. In an interview to mark her birthday last August — when she celebrated with a slap-up meal of watermelon, bamboo shoots and apple wedges — he said: “She is like a family member to me.”