Story highlights Pan Pan helped father about 25% of the world's captive panda population

He was the oldest living male panda when he died at the age of 31

(CNN) You may never have heard of him, but without this bear you might never have seen a panda in your local zoo.

Pan Pan, the oldest male panda in the world, died early in the morning on Wednesday in China's Sichuan province.

During his life, Pan Pan fathered more than 130 children and grandchildren, according to Chinese state media, making 25% of all pandas in captivity his descendents.

Keepers fondly remembered his "energy and vitality" in the 1990s, during which he fathered the first ever panda cub to survive in a captive breeding environment.

His family is now living in zoos across the world, from California in the United States to Chiang Mai in Thailand and even all the way in Edinburgh, Scotland.