According to her carers at the Ocean Park theme park in Hong Kong, Jia Jia, whose name means 'good,' is in remarkably good health in light of her age.
"She’s had a few ups and downs, but she always manages to bounce back and look surprisingly good for years after that," said Jia Jia's veterinarian, Paolo Martelli.
"While still very low, this represents a real success story, with numbers increasing from around 1,000 in the late 1970s," said the World Wildlife Fund, which was invited by the Chinese government to work in China to help conserve the giant panda population in the 1970s.
The WWF estimates the average lifespan of a giant panda in the wild at 14-20 years, and up to 30 years in captivity. The record for oldest giant panda belongs to Du Du, a panda from China who was born in 1962, and died at the age of 37 in 1999.
