AFP/Getty Images file

Panda bear Bao Bao plays in his indoor enclosure at the Berlin Zoo in 2007.

MAINZ, Germany -- Bao Bao, one of the world’s oldest giant pandas, died at the age of 34 early Wednesday, officials at Berlin’s zoo told NBC News.

The animal's health had been deteriorating over the past months, zoo officials said. Bao Bao had not been eating well and had shown a gaunt face, zoo officials say. The cause of death is being determined in an autopsy.

In 1980, Bao Bao was given as a gift by China to Helmut Schmidt, who was the West German chancellor at the time. Bao Bao was the only remaining Panda at the Berlin zoo after the death of Yan Yan in 2007.

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A lioness named Nyanga attacked and killed a 63-year-old South African zookeeper on Monday, apparently because security gates were left open, the Johannesburg Zoo said Tuesday.

Colleagues heard Joe Ramonetha screaming and rushed to help but it was too late, zoo spokeswoman Letta Madlala said. Ramonetha, suffering a severe bite to the neck, was declared dead on arrival at the hospital, she said.

Ramonetha had been feeding the 11-year-old lioness or cleaning out her enclosure at a rural lion breeding farm in Parys that is managed by the Johannesburg Zoo, about 75 miles southwest of Johannesburg, Madlala said.

The zoo's executive manager for education, Louise Gordon, called Ramonetha’s death a “terrible accident.” She said there had not been a fatal animal attack at the zoo in 50 years.

"Joe was attacked in the staff passage and sustained a fatal bite wound to his throat," Gordon said. She said staff are trained to close gates when they enter the lion area and to release them to an outside camp area before starting to work in the enclosure.

Zoo managers will meet to decide the fate of Nyanga the lioness. The lioness was tranquilized and moved to a separate cage following the incident, according to the BBC.

Ramonetha had worked at the zoo for more than 40 years and was an experienced handler. He is survived by his wife and four children.

South Africa has about 2,700 free-ranging lions and 4,000 lions in captivity.

Msnbc.com staff contributed to this report from The Associated Press.

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Lai Seng Sin / AP

A siamang like this one photographed in a cage at the National Zoo in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, attacked two children Tuesday.

MALACCA, Malaysia — A 3-year-old boy was seriously injured in the right thigh when he was attacked by an 83-pound gibbon at the Malacca Zoo, zoo officials said Thursday.

The boy, identified as Afiq Haziq Kamarul, underwent a three-hour operation at Malacca Hospital after the incident, which occurred Tuesday afternoon, the New Straits Times reports.

Read the full story at New Straits Times

Afiq's mother, Anita Sulaiman, told the paper that the gibbon — specifically, a siamang, a tailless variety with black fur — appeared tame and was allowed to move freely among visitors.

"Suddenly, the group of people who were standing near the gibbon started running away from it and shouted for help," she said.

The gibbon let go only when another visitor kicked its stomach, she said.

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Agence France-Presse reported that the gibbon had earlier bitten a 5-year-old visitor on her right ankle. She also received medical treatment, according to Ahmad Azhar Mohammed, the zoo's director.

Mohammad said zoo officials subsequently caught the gibbon and have quarantined the animal. The zoo is investigating how it jumped out of its enclosure, he said, adding that the animal could have been provoked by the visitors.

A spokesman for the zoo told the Daily News of Malacca that zoo officials had apologized to the family and would help pay Afiq's medical costs.

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