The Shanghai Zoo is looking for a lifelong partner for its only fertile giant panda, Guo Qing.

Five-year-old Guo is one of the three giant pandas living in the zoo in the east Chinese metropolis.

The other two, Chuan Chuan and Jia Si, are both aged over 20, which normally marks the end of a panda's reproductive life, head of the zoo's development department, Su Feilong, said.

Born in 1999 in the famous Wolong-based China Giant Panda Protection and Research Centre in Sichuan province, Guo is in his reproductive prime, said Sun Qiang, who has cared for the panda since he moved to Shanghai when he was two years old.

"He eats a lot, sleeps well and is so energetic that he often climbs to the top of a tree about five meters tall," Sun said. "The latest physical examination shows the 120kg creature is in very good condition, ready to be a father."

Sun said the zoo was searching for a female panda of similar age and weight. "We will take good care of the couple and try our best to make the female feel at home here," he said.

The giant panda is one of the most endangered species in the world. Only about 1,000 giant pandas are estimated to live in the wild, all of them in China.