GU GU is an incorrigible biter, a giant panda at Beijing zoo who has bitten his third tourist in two years – and this time, his jaws had to be forced open with tools to free an ill-advised Anhui man, who jumped into Gu Gu’s enclosure to retrieve his son’s toy.
The 110kg (243lbs) panda mauled the man’s legs and refused to let go until his keepers intervened.
The Beijing News reported that Gu Gu’s latest victim, Zhang Jiao of the central province of Anhui, suffered damage to major ligaments and was recovering from surgery. “The panda bit into the man’s right leg, and when he was done with that, he bit the left leg,” according to a report in the Beijing Morning Post. Mr Zhang may now face criminal charges for entering the panda pen.
Pandas, China’s national symbol, are generally seen as cute and cuddly, but they can turn violent when provoked or startled and need careful supervision by their keepers when around people. Generally they will sit there quietly chewing on an apple while visitors come to say hello, but they can turn nasty quickly. Zoo officials say they are considering how to prevent further incidents.
Gu Gu has “form”, but he is also forced to deal with a fair number of ill-advised trespassers on his enclosure. He first made news in 2007 when he bit a drunken tourist who jumped into his pen and tried to hug him. Oddly, the tourist retaliated by biting the panda in the back. In October last year he also attacked a 15-year-old victim who climbed into his exercise area out of curiosity. Tourists visiting the zoo when the incident took place said that Mr Zhang appeared to first look around to see if there were any pandas nearby before jumping in to get his five-year-old son’s toy.
Pandas are an endangered species and there are fewer than 2,000 left in the wild. Last month, China sent two pandas, Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, to Taiwan as “panda ambassadors” to underline closer ties across the Strait of Taiwan. However, the pair are losing weight in their new environment, which some see as emblematic of the difficult relationship between mainland China and self-ruled Taiwan.