Ling Ling, the last surviving giant panda kept at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo and a symbol of friendship in Japan’s often shaky ties with China, died Wednesday of heart failure, officials said.

The male panda was 22 years and 7 months old, which in human terms would mean Ling Ling was about 70 years old, Tokyo metropolitan government officials said.

Ling Ling’s death mean that the Ueno Zoological Gardens in Tokyo’s Taito Ward, which became the starting point for so-called panda diplomacy in 1972, will be without a panda for the first time in 36 years.

The panda had been ill in recent days and was removed from public viewing Tuesday, following several absences earlier this month for treatment of a circulatory ailment.

Japan has been receiving giant pandas from China since October 1972 to commemorate the normalization of bilateral relations that year. The first pandas, Kang Kang and Lan Lan, were brought to Ueno Zoo. Ling Ling arrived in November 1992, and had long been a hugely popular attraction there.

Currently, eight pandas are being kept at zoos in Kobe and Shirahama, Wakayama Prefecture.

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