Bao Bao and Bei Bei's grandfather Pan Pan has died. He was the oldest male giant panda in the world, according to CNN and the BBC.
Pan Pan was born in the wild and was captured while very young in 1985. He died at a conservation and research center in China.
The giant panda had a big claim to fame: "Famous for his natural breeding skills," he can be genetically linked to about one-quarter of the world's population of captive-born pandas.
Those descendants include the Smithsonian National Zoo's 19-year-old male giant panda, Tian Tian, and Tian Tian's three offspring: Bao Bao and Bei Bei, who live at the National Zoo, and Tai Shan, who lives in China at the same center where his grandfather resided. In fact, the two lived next door to each other, the zoo said last year.
In addition to Tian Tian, Pan Pan fathered at least 31 other cubs, according to the Smithsonian National Zoo.
