Xin Xin

Basic Profile

Xin Xin (Chinese: 新新, meaning “new”), studbook number 352, is a female giant panda born on July 1, 1990 at Chapultepec Zoo (Centro de Conservación de la Vida Silvestre de Chapultepec) in Mexico City, Mexico. She was conceived naturally.

Her mother is Tohui (studbook 312, July 21, 1981 – November 16, 1993), the first giant panda ever born in captivity outside China, who was herself the daughter of Ying Ying and Pe Pe, the original pair gifted to Mexico in 1975. Her father is Chia Chia, a male giant panda on loan from London Zoo who arrived in Mexico in the late 1980s.

Unique Status

Xin Xin holds an extraordinary legal distinction: she is the only giant panda in the world that does not belong to China. She is a second-generation Mexican-born panda, tracing her lineage to Ying Ying and Pe Pe, who arrived on September 10, 1975. Because of the timing — she was born before China ended its policy of gifting pandas in 1984 and shifted to loan agreements — Xin Xin and her Chapultepec relatives remain the exclusive property of Mexico.

Today, she is also the only giant panda in Latin America, and Chapultepec Zoo is one of only two zoos in the world (alongside Taipei Zoo) that houses pandas without direct supervision of the Chinese government.

Life at Chapultepec

Xin Xin has lived her entire life at Chapultepec Zoo, where she has become a beloved cultural symbol and the zoo’s most iconic resident. Her enclosure at Chapultepec sits at an altitude of approximately 2,300 meters (7,500 ft), similar to the pandas’ native habitat in Sichuan, China — a factor attributed by researchers to Mexico’s remarkable success in panda breeding.

Throughout her adult life, Xin Xin has been artificially inseminated annually with sperm from Chinese pandas in a continuing effort to breed. Despite these efforts, she has never successfully conceived. Chapultepec’s director noted that by 2022, Xin Xin had entered menopause, bringing an end to breeding attempts.

Longevity and Care

As a geriatric panda, Xin Xin receives specialized care. Her keepers — known affectionately as “los panderos” — provide her with a custom diet suitable for her age, daily health monitoring, and treatments for age-related conditions. She is one of the six oldest giant pandas under professional care in the world, having surpassed the typical life expectancy for the species.

On July 1, 2024, Xin Xin celebrated her 34th birthday at Chapultepec with a special piñata filled with apples and carrots, drawing widespread media coverage and public celebration.

Legacy

Xin Xin represents the end of an era. She is the last surviving descendant of the panda diplomacy pandas gifted to Mexico in the 1970s. Her passing will mark the end of pandas in Latin America, unless Mexico’s government negotiates a new loan agreement with China — a prospect complicated by the annual cost of approximately $1 million.

Chapultepec Zoo has preserved genetic material — cryogenically frozen semen and ovarian tissue — from Xin Xin’s relatives, ensuring that Mexico’s contribution to giant panda conservation can continue even after she is gone.