The oldest male panda known on Earth was put down Thursday at Hong Kong’s Ocean Park Zoo.
An An was a 35-year-old gift from Beijing in 2001. At the time, the panda was a commemorative gift from China on the anniversary of the date that the United Kingdom transferred the sovereignty of Hong Kong. His age was the equivalent of 105 human years, as pandas generally live to be between the ages of 14 and 20, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
“An An’s health deteriorated slowly but progressively in the past few weeks with a severe decrease in physical activities and food intake. His condition reached a humane endpoint that based on animal welfare reasons, veterinarians from Ocean Park and the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department made the difficult decision to perform the procedure of humane euthanasia on An An after consulting the China Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Panda,” the zoo wrote in a Facebook post.
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In An An’s former exhibit, there is a poster of him with a bouquet of flowers. A condolence book was also displayed for visitors at the Hong Kong Jockey Club Sichuan Treasures.
The panda’s female companion, Jia Jia, held the world record for the longest-living panda at 38 years old. Jia Jia did not have any panda litters with An An, as they both lived their lives in captivity.
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There are only 1,864 pandas on Earth, according to the WWF, making the species “vulnerable” to extinction.
