Meat-eating panda caught on camera

The first recorded instance of a wild panda eating meat, photographed in Sichuan province.
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A camera at a Chinese nature reserve in Sichuan province has spotted the first known case of a wild panda eating meat.

Staff at the Wanglang nature reserve set up the camera after finding dead animals with bite marks; at the time it was not known if a panda had killed the animal. Pandas are typically known to eat only bamboo shoots, but according to experts it is not unheard of for them to eat meat.

"Pandas ate meat millions of years ago," said Chen Youping, deputy director of the forestry department of Pingwu county. "Now they mainly eat bamboo, but we have occasionally sees bones of dead animals in panda excrement during our years of fieldwork," he said.

The panda caught on camera appears to be healthy and strong. The World Wildlife Fund, a conservation group, says that only about 1% of a panda's diet consists of meat or plants besides bamboo.