Another celebrity has passed away in 2016. This time it is Pan Pan, the world’s oldest male panda, who died at 31 in southwest China’s Sichuan Province on Wednesday morning.

Pan Pan passed at 4:50 a.m. on Dec 28. An autopsy is being carried out to find the cause of his death, though the circumstances are not thought to be suspicious.

“Pan Pan was the equivalent to about 100 human years, but he had been living with cancer and his health had deteriorated in the past three days,” Tan Chengbin, a keeper with the Dujiangyan base of the China Conservation and Research Center for Giant Panda, told Xinhua. “He had lost consciousness.”

Though born in the wild in Sichuan’s Baoxing County in 1985, Pan Pan lived in captivity from just a few months old.

Pan Pan fathered 25% of world's giant pandas in captivity. Here're some rare moments of his legendary life #XinhuaTV pic.twitter.com/zxJREowrgr

— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) December 29, 2016

“Panda grandpa,” as he became known, was diagnosed with cancer in June this year, and also suffered from common old-age conditions, such as cataracts and poor teeth.

Pandas are notoriously difficult to breed, but Pan Pan lived a particularly active life for a panda and fathered many cubs over the past 20 years. He has more than 130 descendants, accounting for 25 percent of the world’s captive breeding panda population.

The average lifespan of wild pandas is normally 20 years, but those in captivity usually live longer. Pan Pan, which means “expectation” in Chinese, was also name of the mascot for the 1990 Beijing Asian Games, though the mascot was not modeled on “panda grandpa” but on a 36-year-old female panda Basi, currently the oldest panda in the world.

China's netizens mourn the death of Pan Pan and share memories of the1990 Asian Games, but the mascot was not modelled on the same panda pic.twitter.com/WD6dzgVVqZ

— Xinhua Sports (@XHSports) December 29, 2016

Giant pandas are one of the world’s most endangered species. Fewer than 2,000 pandas live in the wild, mostly in the provinces of Sichuan and Shaanxi. At the end of 2013 China had 1,864 giant pandas in the wild. There are also 422 in captivity, China’s State Forestry Administration said.

Pan Pan is survived by numerous descendants.

Story by Xinhua