Elderly Panda Celebrates 25th Birthday

An elderly panda has celebrated her 25th birthday in a Chinese zoo with cake and flowers. Basi, whose age is equivalent to 100 in human terms, has far outlived the normal panda life expectancy of 12 years, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
On Sunday, Basi gnawed a huge birthday cake in her enclosure at a zoo in the southeastern city of Fuzhou.
Across the park everyone could hear a special song specially written for the occasion.
The panda walked around her pool and later, maybe shy in the face of so many enthusiastic visitors, went to her little cave to enjoy the cake.
A special website about the panda was launched last week and already more than 5,000 people have looked at it. Special stamps, postcards and calendars were also published for the big day.
The famous superstar with regular appearances on Chinese television is a nimble weight lifter, basketball player and cyclist.
Basi toured the United States in the late 1980s and served as the mascot for the 1990 Asian Games in Beijing, according to the report. She also appears regularly on Chinese television.