Panda Bao Bao, 25, seeks mate in Berlin
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-11-08 08:37

Berlin will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the arrival from China of Bao Bao, the world's oldest panda in captivity, amidst fading hopes that the bear will ever produce offspring.

Twin Giant panda cubs play at China Giant Panda Protection and Research Centre in Wolong National Natural Reserve, southwest China's Sichuan province November 5, 2005. The cubs are about three month old. [newsphoto]

"Bao Bao is a star in Berlin, the newspapers here write between 100 and 150 articles about him each year," said Heiner Kloes recently, a biologist at the city's Zoological Garden.

"I receive emails from foreign visitors who ask me how he is and whether he is still with us in Berlin."

Lying on its back munching bamboo shoots flown in from France, the 115-kilogram black and white bear looks quite oblivious to the fuss.

Berliners may be particularly fond of their zoo -- Kloes says there are people who visit every day and know the animals better than he does -- but it is Bao Bao and his disappointing love life that grips their imagination more than any other denizen.

He came out from China when he was two years old, in 1980, and arrived with his first companion, Tjen Tjen.

The pair were accompanied by former Chinese prime minister Hua Guofeng who personally presented them to the German chancellor at the time, Helmut Schmidt.

The press and the public could not get enough of the bears when they first settled in at the Zoological Garden, which lies in the west of what was then still a divided city.

Tragedy struck not long afterwards when Tjen Tjen died of a virus just as she reached the age where she could have cubs.

Since then the zoo has repeatedly tried and failed to find a mate that could give Bao Bao offspring and help save the endangered species that turns sex-shy in captivity.

Bao Bao had been flown to London's zoo to meet a panda called Ming Ming.

But it all went wrong when the play-fight that normally proceeds the mating process with pandas turned nasty. Ming Ming was badly injured and Bao Bao returned to Berlin.

Ten years later, Yan Yan arrived from China gave Berliners hopes to produce a little panda.

But after numerous attempts at artificial insemination and a visit by Chinese zoologists, it emerged that Yan Yan was rendered infertile by a hormonal disorder.

At the moment Bao Bao and Yan Yan are living in separate enclosures and talks are ongoing to find another female for Bao Bao from China.