Ailing Giant Panda Put to Sleep at National Zoo

The giant panda Hsing-Hsing, the endearing symbol of the opening of U.S.--China ties and the enduring favorite of millions of visitors to Washington’s National Zoo, was put to sleep early Sunday after a losing battle with time and illness.

Hsing-Hsing, who was suffering from irreversible kidney disease and other ailments of old age, was 28, well beyond a panda’s normal life expectancy.

Lisa Stevens, associate curator of mammals at the zoo, said she felt “an immense emptiness, as empty as the Panda House is now.”

Hsing-Hsing, a male, and Ling-Ling, a female, arrived at the zoo in April 1972, a gift from China after President Nixon’s historic visit to Beijing. Ling-Ling died of a heart attack in 1992 after giving birth to five babies in four pregnancies. None survived more than four days.

With Hsing-Hsing’s death there are only five giant pandas in American zoos. Three are in San Diego and two arrived this month at Zoo Atlanta, where they will stay for a 10-year research project.

An estimated 1,000 of the highly endangered species survive in the wilds of China, although many experts say that figure might be high. Stevens said there are about 130 pandas in zoos, 16 of them outside China.

Hsing-Hsing, already suffering from arthritis, had been in declining health since his kidney disease was discovered in May.

National Zoo deputy director McKinley Hudson said that on Friday he found the panda unresponsive, with poor vision and difficulty walking. Hudson decided Saturday that the zoo no longer could maintain the panda’s quality of life.

On Saturday, Hsing-Hsing was given his favorite foods, which included blueberry muffins, sweet potatoes and the panda staple, bamboo shoots.

One cage of the Panda House was covered Sunday with get-well cards sent by children from around the country. A second cage was empty except for a mourning photo of Hsing-Hsing and a small tire he used for clawing. Two small boys wearing panda masks peered in.

Stevens said Hsing-Hsing’s body will undergo a necropsy so panda specialists can gain knowledge of the diseases that afflicted him.