Oldest panda dies aged 37

THE oldest giant panda in captivity has died aged 37, it was announced yesterday.

Basi, who was kept at the Straits Giant Panda Research and Exchange Centre in Fuzhou, south-east China, had been rescued from the wild when she was four or five.

Pandas live for about 20 years in the wild, but longer in captivity. The centre said Basi, who was loaned to San Diego Zoo in the US for six months in 1987, was ‘an angel of friendship both at home and abroad’.