The world's only brown and white-colored giant panda raised in the zoo, Dan Dan, died Thursday in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province.
The 29-year-old female giant panda, equivalent to a woman in her 80's, suffered from bad health and cataracts in recent years, a zoo staff said. This May, the aging panda was diagnosed with cellular cancer.
Zoologists from the Xi'an Zoo and experts from the No. 4 Medical College of the Chinese People's Liberation Army have tried every effort to prolong the life of the panda.
However, the situation of Dan Dan deteriorated on September 1. The panda twitched and could not eat and stand. It then underwent a CT examination in hospital.
Doctors injected nutrient solution to the comatose panda, but failed to save its life.
Dan Dan was discovered in Foping County, Shaanxi, 15 years ago, and was sent to Xi'an Zoo. It gave birth to a male black and white-colored panda in 1989.
Zoologists from the Research Center for Giant Panda Breeding in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, took samples of skin, internal organs and germ cells from the dead panda for genetic research.
(People's Daily)
