On the Chongqing Zoo, Xin Xing lived a seemingly untroubled life, lounging in a bear-size pool in the summertime and consuming seven meals a day.
Her caretaker of 28 years, Zhang Naicheng, advised China Each day in August, “When she was youthful, she ate quicker and far more than different pandas.”
The panda was additionally liable to mood tantrums when she was younger, he advised the China Information Service in 2018. “Xin Xing was fairly hotheaded again then,” he mentioned. “Among the many pandas, she was a fairly fierce one. Now that she’s outdated, she’s turn into extra docile and fewer simply provoked.”
For her thirty eighth birthday, in August, zoo keepers introduced her with a big ice dice piled excessive with watermelon slices, apple wedges and bamboo leaf garnishes. Youngsters sang to her from a distance.
Xin Xing celebrated the Chinese language lunar New 12 months with 4 wobbly-footed cubs, together with two great-granddaughters, Xi Xi and Qing Qing, on the Chongqing Zoo.
Xin Xing’s mother and father couldn’t be recognized, and her male companion, Chuan Chuan, died in 2010. Her survivors, too many to call, embody a son, Le Le, within the Memphis Zoo; a grandson, Tuan Tuan, within the Taipei Zoo; a granddaughter, Er Shun, who was lately returned to China from the Calgary Zoo; and her great-grand cubs Jia Panpan, Jia Yueyue, Yuan Zai and Yuan Bao.
As Xin Xing grew older and her temperament softened, her attachment to her caretakers grew stronger, the zoo mentioned. In her ultimate years, Mr. Zhang moved to a room 20 yards from her enclosure to look at over her at night time. To spare her growing old enamel, he pared down bamboo shoots, feeding her the shucked stems and tender leaves.