http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/5364058.stmA drunken Chinese tourist says he bit a panda who attacked him after he jumped into a zoo enclosure to "hug" the bear.
Zhang Xinyan, 35, had drunk four draught beers before deciding to enter the Beijing Zoo pen belonging to six-year-old male panda Gu Gu.
The startled Gu Gu bit both legs of his intruder, who responded by biting "the panda on its back", Mr Zhang was quoted by state media as saying.
Mr Zhang said he had not realised pandas could be violent.
He told the Beijing Morning Post that he had come to the Chinese capital "only to see the pandas".
"The seven-hour train ride was exhausting, and I drank bottles of beer when I arrived then had a nap," he added.
Punishment
The newspaper said Mr Zhang had a "sudden urge" to touch Gu Gu with his hand, so he jumped over the waist-high railing into the enclosure.
No one ever said they would bite people. I just wanted to touch it
Zhang Xinyan
"When he got closer and was undiscovered, he reached out to hug it," the newspaper added.
Mr Zhang was bitten first on his right leg, and then on his left.
Newspaper photographs showed him lying on a hospital bed with blood-soaked bandages over his legs.
"I bit the panda on its back but its fur was too thick," Mr Zhang recalled.
He went on: "No one ever said they would bite people. I just wanted to touch it."
Zoo spokeswoman Ye Mingxia said the panda was unharmed and they were not considering punishing Mr Zhang yet.
"He's suffered quite a bit of a shock," she told the Associated Press by telephone.
― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 20 September 2006 15:10 (nineteen years ago)
two years pass...
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL twee pandahuggers in china.
At least Zhang above was drunk!
http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSTRE4AN5NF20081124
Panda attacks man who wanted a cuddle
Mon Nov 24, 2008 2:21pm EST
BEIJING (Reuters) - A panda at a zoo in southern China attacked a student who snuck into its pen hoping for a cuddle with the endangered bear, state media said Saturday.The 20-year-old male student surnamed Liu jumped over the fence at the zoo in the tourist city of Guilin, ignoring warning signs not to, Xinhua news agency said.
"The panda, named Yangyang, was wide awake. Apparently scared by the intruder, he bit at Liu's arms and legs," it quoted an unnamed worker as saying after zoo keepers managed to calm the bear and rescue Liu, the report said.
"Yangyang was so cute and I just wanted to cuddle him," Liu was quoted as saying from his hospital bed. "I didn't expect he would attack."
Scientists believe fewer than 2,000 giant pandas live in the wild in China.
― HI, YOUR BAND! (Mackro Mackro), Monday, 24 November 2008 20:02 (seventeen years ago)