The world’s oldest captive giant panda has died at the age of 37 – more than 100 years in human years.
A zoo in China said on Thursday that the female bear, named Basi, died of ‘illnesses’ yesterday morning as they gave her an emotional send-off befitting a minor celebrity.
The well-love animal was found as a starving cub in a frozen river in 1984. She quickly became a national star after being trained to perform various sports stunts, such as weight lifting and biking riding.
Panda Basi has died aged 37 at a zoo in China. The female bear was something of a beloved star in China and her birthdays were often celebrated with gusto. She was named the world’s oldest panda at her birthday earlier this year (pictured)
Sports star: Basi was trained to perform various sports stunts, including lifting weights and shooting hoops, in 1980s
Staff at the Strait Panda Research and Exchange Centre put flowers around Basi’s body after the panda passed away. The bear’s body would be kept in the Basi Museum, which is being constructed to commemorate the panda
Basi died at the Strait Panda Research and Exchange Centre in Fuzhou, south-east China’s Fujian Province, after having fallen ill since June.
She was said to have died of multiple illnesses, including liver cirrhosis and renal failure, reported Xinhua News Agency.
State television reported live on Thursday from the centre, which held a memorial in her honour.
‘With a heavy heart, we solemnly announce today that the original model of ‘Panpan’, the mascot for the first Asian Games (in China, 1990), and an angel of friendship both at home and abroad, giant panda star Basi died at 8:50am on September 13, 2017 at the age of 37,’ the Straits Giant Panda Research and Exchange Center in Fuzhou said on social media.
According to the centre, Basi fell ill in June and died yesterday morning of multiple illnesses, including liver cirrhosis and renal failure. Pictured, a worker at the centre was giving Basi a body massage during the bear’s medical treatment
A top medical team (pictured) was formed by the Fuzhou authority in a bid to treat and save Basi after she became ill in June
Basi was given bamboo and a hot water bottle as ‘she tried to fight off illness with extreme tenacity’, said her care Mr Chen
According to Chen Yucun, director of the centre and the carer of Basi for 33 years, a museum is being built to commemorate the panda and will be named after her.
‘Basi’s body will be put in Basi Museum, which is being constructed for people to forever remember her and share the spirit of the harmonious development between humans and nature,’ Mr Chen said to Xinhua.
Mr Chen talked about the bear as if she had been his own daughter.
Like father and daughter: Chen Yucun, the panda’s carer for 33 years, proudly celebrated Basi’s 37th birthday in January. She was named the world’s oldest panda in captivity during the birthday party. Mr Chen was holding a certificate of the record
Basi’s body is set to be kept in a museum being built in her honour, according to Chen Yucun, the director of the centre. Pictured, a breeder stroked Basi in 2015 as the bear celebrated her 35th birthday at the centre in Fuzhou
In a eulogy released today, he said Basi was ‘diligent’, ‘selfless’ and ‘strong’.
‘We call them the “Basi Spirit” and we should promote and learn from the spirit,’ Mr Chen wrote.
The centre is due to hold a public memorial service for Basi at 10am on September 16, and a documentary of the panda would be played at the centre for the rest of the month.
Basi outlived most of her peers by nearly two decades – Pandas in the wild have an average lifespan of about 20 years, but those in captivity generally live longer.
In a eulogy released today, Mr Chen, who had looked after Basi for 33 years, said the bear was ‘diligent’, ‘selfless’ and ‘strong’
Basi was something of a beloved star in China and her birthdays were often celebrated with gusto.
In January, she was named the world’s oldest panda in captivity after another female panda, Jia Jia, had died in Hong Kong aged 38.
Only three giant pandas in the world including Basi have ever reached this age, according to Mr Chen.
Jia Jia, who lived until 38 years old, was euthanised at the Hong Kong theme park last October due to deteriorating health; and Du Du, who lived in Wuhan, China, died in 1998 aged 37.
FROM AN ABANDONED CUB TO A NATIONAL HERO: THE INCREDIBLE STORY OF BASI
Basi was found in a frozen river as a cub in 1984, and she quickly became a national star after being trained to do sports
Born in the wild, the female panda was rescued at the age of four after a farmer spotted it floating in a half-frozen river in minus 20 degrees Celsius in Sichuan Province in south-west China.
She was saved from the river and sent to a breeding centre in Sichuan to recover. Six months later, Basi was transferred to Fuzhou to be looked after by Chen Yucun, who had been studying pandas for six years.
As Basi was found in the wild, there was no record of her exact date of birth. But after experts examined her body, they confirmed that the panda was around four years old.
Mr Chen said the year Basi was found, 1984, was also the year when the bamboo forest in Sichuan blossomed, a rare natural phenomenon which happens once every 60 to 80 years. This means that Basi would have starved while living in the wild.
Basi broke into super-stardom in Fuzhou. She became an animal star at her zoo after being trained to perform various sports stunts, such as weight lifting and biking riding.
Basi visited the San Diego Zoo in America in 1987 and attracted around 2.5 million visitors during her stay.
In 1990, Basi’s sporting talent caught the attention of Asian Games, the most prestigious event organised by the Olympic Council of Asia. She became the inspiration of the mascot of the 11th Asian Games, panda ‘Pan Pan’.
Mr Chen told MailOnline in a previous interview: ‘It is hard to put an exact conversion rate between panda years and human years.
‘But most pandas start having health issues, such as heart diseases, when they are around 20 years old, and human being usually get the illnesses when they are around 80 years old.’
Mr Chen also described Basi as ‘pretty’, ‘human-like’, ‘quiet’ but ‘mischievous’.
The carer said one of his regrets was that Basi had never had a cub – despite her incredibly lengthy life.
He explained: ‘Among all female pandas, only 20 per cent are able to conceive. The other 80 per cent have trouble forming healthy eggs. Unfortunately, Basi is one of the 80 per cent.’
Giant pandas have a notoriously low reproductive rate, a key contributor – along with habitat loss – to their status as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of threatened species.
The black and white bear, which symbolises wildlife protection efforts worldwide, was previously classified as endangered.