Yan Yan

Basic Profile

Yan Yan (Chinese name: 嫣嫣, German name: Schönheit, meaning “Beauty”) was a female giant panda born around 1985 at Beijing Zoo in Beijing, China. She was one of the earliest pandas sent to Germany under cooperative research agreements in the 1990s.

Life Journey

Move to Berlin

In 1995, during a visit by Berlin’s former mayor Eberhard Diepgen to China, Yan Yan was selected for loan to Zoo Berlin as part of a Sino-German panda cooperation program. She joined the male Bao Bao (宝宝, studbook 241), who had been gifted to Germany in 1980. At Zoo Berlin, Yan Yan lived in a specially designed panda enclosure featuring an automatic sprinkler system and a dedicated glass greenhouse. Her diet consisted of imported bamboo flown in from abroad along with specially formulated concentrated feed.

Breeding Attempts

The primary goal of Yan Yan’s presence at Zoo Berlin was to breed with Bao Bao and establish a panda family in Germany. Over the course of 12 years, experts performed eight artificial insemination procedures, none of which resulted in pregnancy. In 2005, the zoo abandoned the breeding program. She left no descendants.

Life at the Zoo

Before the arrival of the famous polar bear Knut, Yan Yan was the most popular animal at Zoo Berlin. She was known for her leisurely habits — spending most of her time lying on her back eating bamboo. She also developed a well-known fondness for alcohol; visitors occasionally threw small bottles of spirits into her enclosure.

Death and Legacy

On March 26, 2007, Yan Yan died at Zoo Berlin at approximately 22 years of age. An autopsy revealed the cause of death was gastric failure (胃功能衰竭). On January 13, 2015, her skeleton was put on public display at the Berlin Museum of Natural History. Her unsuccessful breeding was later followed by successful births at Zoo Berlin: in 2019, the pandas Meng Meng and Jiao Qing produced twin cubs Meng Xiang and Meng Yuan, Germany’s first-ever panda cubs.