A wild panda was spotted gnawing on the bones of a deceased moose in the county of Songtao, China.
“When we discovered the panda, it was about 50 meters away from us. There were no bamboo forests on this vast mountainside,” said Li Shuiping, a ranger at the Foping National Nature Reserve in Shaanxi.
Li mentioned that he and his colleagues were very surprised to see the panda gnawing on the bones of a moose.
The panda was found gnawing on meat. (Photo: China News)
“The panda enjoyed its meal for about 10 minutes before leaving the bone and returning to the forest, climbing up a large tree,” Li said. This is the second time a panda in Foping has been observed eating meat.
Despite this, bamboo still makes up 99% of a panda’s diet, and they only eat meat in rare cases.
Sun Quanhui, a biologist with the World Animal Protection organization, believes that the reason for this rare behavior is that pandas need to absorb other nutrients that their bodies require.
Pandas are originally carnivorous but have adapted to a bamboo diet to cope with changes in climate and environment. However, their digestive systems still retain characteristics of their carnivorous ancestors.
“Wild pandas primarily gnaw on the meat from the bones of deceased animals,” said Li Sheng, a researcher at Peking University and an expert at the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
He added that there have been several reports of pandas eating meat in areas surrounding the Qinling Mountains.
