Popular elderly panda dies at Chengdu base

Female elderly giant panda Cheng Gong died at the age of 23 in her den on Sunday morning, according to a notice from the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Sichuan province.

One year for a panda is equivalent to three or four years for a human being, said Zhang Guiquan, a panda expert with the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda.

Cheng Gong was found to be in good health by a night-shift keeper on Saturday evening. But she was discovered dead on Sunday morning, the base said in a notice issued online.

According to the notice, her recent intake of bamboo shoots and nutrition was normal, the amount of her feces and body weight were normal and her hair was shiny. Her overall condition was good.

On Sunday afternoon, the base cooperated with several hospitals in Sichuan to carry out pathological analysis and comprehensive assessment in order to find the cause of her death.

As of press time on Monday, no reports of the analysis and assessment had been announced.

To panda lovers, the death of Cheng Gong, who was a mother of nine pandas, aroused a lot of attention because she was the mother of Hua Hua, the most celebrated panda at the Chengdu base.

Every day, a long line begins forming at the base in the northern suburbs of Chengdu at around 7 am, half an hour before it opens.

Many visitors go there to see Hua Hua, said Yuan Yuan, a university student from the city.

Hua Hua, a 3-year-old female panda at the base, is an online sensation because of her intelligence. She obeys when her keeper, known as Grandpa Tan among panda lovers, summons her, Yuan said.

Grandpa Tan, whose real name is Tan Jintao, is a 51-year-old keeper. What amuses panda lovers is that he always speaks to Hua Hua loudly in the local Sichuan dialect.

huangzhiling@chinadaily.com.cn