Wild Panda is filmed eating meat in China

The moment a wild panda turns carnivore has been filmed in Pingwu County, southwest China's Sichuan Province, for the first time.

Captured on an infrared camera in the Laohegou forest area, the panda appears to find a dead wildebeest in a gulley and gnaws on its bones for two hours.


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Pandas are typically known to eat only bamboo shoots, but according to Chen Youping, deputy director of Forestry Department of Pingwu County, it is not unknown for the beasts to eat meat. "The reason why pandas eat meat is because it used to eat meat millions of years ago," he said.

"Now they mainly eat bamboos, but we occasionally see bones of dead animals in pandas' excrement during our years of field work," he added. It is the first time a panda eating meat has been clearly seen, according to local workers in the forest area.