While pandas are known for eating the leaves and stems of bamboo trees, one wild giant panda branched out from its diet and ate a goat in Leshan in Southwest China’s Sichuan Province.
Residents of Muping village spotted the wild panda roaming about nearby for 20 minutes last Wednesday, according to Shanghaiist.
The panda reportedly attacked a villager’s goat, and left behind nothing but its bloody fur, skin and bones before running off back into the wilderness.
The local forestry bureau collected excrement samples and confirmed that the animal had returned to its home in the mountains.
But it is unclear whether the panda will return to strike and kill once again.
Pandas were taken off the endangered species list at the end of 2014 after it was estimated that 1,864 giant pandas have been living in the wild in China, a jump from around 1,100 in 2000.
The hashtag “wild giant panda eating goat” has racked up more than 1.75 million views on microblogging platform Sina Weibo, with many in shock to learn that pandas can eat meat, according to Global Times.
“I thought pandas are naïve and only eat bamboo, I didn’t expect them to be so fierce,” one user wrote on Weibo.
Even though giant pandas are mostly vegetarian, they still have the ursine teeth of their omnivorous evolutionary ancestors, and will use them occasionally to eat goats, sheep or other livestock.
Many Weibo users were also concerned about how the villager would be compensated for losing his goat.
In December, a Sichuan panda breeder from the Giant Panda Protection and Research Center had his arms and legs severely injured by a captive-bred panda, named Xi Mei, who was being trained to survive in the wild.
Here’s to hoping these adorable creatures don’t build an appetite for human meat.
