An An, the world's oldest male giant panda in captivity, celebrated his 31st birthday Tuesday at Hong Kong's Ocean Park -- and a 50 percent chance of becoming a dad.

An An, who was born in the wild in 1986, has been diagnosed with high blood pressure, arthritis and a cataract, but is considered to be in stable health, according to the amusement facility.


(Ocean Park)

Ocean Park houses two other giant panda - male Le Le and female Ying Ying, both gifts from China. And on the advice of the China Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Panda, Ocean Park has utilized Le Le's fresh semen and An An's frozen semen to artificially inseminate Ying Ying after numerous natural mating attempts in March failed.

"Since early July, Ying Ying has started displaying some typical pregnancy symptoms," Howard Chuk, Senior Curator of Terrestrial Life Sciences at Ocean Park, said. "Whilst there is always a chance that she is experiencing a pseudo-pregnancy, we hope to bring some good news to the people of Hong Kong this year."

A fourth giant panda given to Hong Kong, Jia Jia, died by euthanization at age 38 last October, after which a panda in China named Basi became the world's oldest female giant panda in captivity at 37.