Photo: Eduardo Verdugo/AP Photo

Giant panda Shuan Shuan eats bamboo in her inclosure at the Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico City, Thursday, July 5, 2012. Shuan Shuan is the aunt of giant panda Xin Xin, who was selected to be be artificially inseminated next year in hopes of adding to the zoo’s panda family, Mexico City Environment Secretary Martha Delgado announced Thursday.

The Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico City is mourning the loss of one of its oldest residents.

On July 6, Mexico City’s Environment Department announced the death of Chapultepec Zoo’s Shuan Shuan the panda, Mexico’s oldest panda, according toABC News. The panda died on her 35th birthday, which was celebrated at the zoo before her passing.

At this time, the Environment Department has not listed Shuan Shuan’s cause of death.

Luis Barron//Eyepix/NurPhoto via AP

July 6, 2022, Mexico City, Mexico: The giant panda Shuan Shuan celebrates 35 years of life and lives in the Chapultepec Forest Zoo in Mexico City, Mexico, which celebrates its 99th anniversary. On Jul 6, 2022 In Mexico City, Mexico.

The department did add that Shuan Shuan had lived well beyond the life expectancy of a wild panda, which the Chapultepec Zoo estimates to be around 15 years.

Born in 1987, Shuan Shuan was one of the longest-lived pandas outside of the species' native habitat of China. The department also noted that before she died, Shuan Shuan had enjoyed a birthday cake of dates and apples, “her favorite food.”

In July 2021, Chinese officials announced that pandas areno longer considered an endangered species. The number of giant pandas in the wild has surpassed 1,800, so the species is now classified as “vulnerable,” a step below “endangered.”

source: people.com