Fei Xiang mourns death of his adopted three-legged panda

Singer-actor Fei Xiang, also known as Kris Phillips, has bid farewell to his long-time “son” – the 25-year-old three-legged panda known as Daili.

The 63-year-old Chinese-American artiste, who starred in Chinese fantasy film Creation Of The Gods I: Kingdom Of Storms (2023), posted on Weibo on Aug 26: “My adopted panda of many years, Daili (also known as Xiangxiang) has gone to heaven. Thank you once again to the veterinarians and staff at the China Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Panda for over 20 years of care.”

He also attached photos of Daili sent to him by employees of the centre in July. He last visited the panda in August 2023 and posted photos of himself at the centre in Sichuan, China, including one of himself with Daili in the background.

Daili, estimated to have been born in 1999, died on Aug 12. An obituary the centre posted for Daili on WeChat said the panda was rescued in the wilderness in Sichuan on Feb 26, 2001. It had a severe injury on its left hind leg which had become infected with pus when it was found.

Veterinarians later amputated the leg – marking the first case of surgical amputation in a panda – that same year. Since then, the panda has lived on the Yaan and Dujiangyan bases of the research centre.

Pandas in captivity have a lifespan of around 30 years, but the centre said Daili’s health began to suffer in old age. Since July 2024, the panda’s appetite had worsened and its intake of food dwindled to almost nothing in its last days. Under close attention and care, there were initially signs of improvement in Daili’s health, but its condition began to worsen again on Aug 9, and it died three days later.

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According to Chinese news reports, Fei Xiang adopted the panda in 2004 and spends about 50,000 yuan (S$9,145) a year on its care. When he visited it in August 2023, employees at the centre shared that Daili weighed 96kg and was considered old.

He wrote in a Weibo post then: “It is in good health, with a little bit of high blood pressure, and is a very docile animal. On this rare visit, I fed it its favourite food – carrots, bamboo and wowotou (Chinese steamed cornbread).”