Chinese pandas spotted eating bones rather than bamboo (Lead, Changing Dateline)
March 2nd, 2010 - 3:13 pm ICT by IANS
Beijing, March 2 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Some Chinese pandas have started eating animal bones instead of their traditional diet of bamboo, state-run China Central Television has said.
The bizarre change in the endangered creatures’ diet is thought to be due to the large-scale cutting down of bamboo forests in China.
According to eyewitnesses, wild pandas have been chewing on bones and spitting out the meat in pig pens in a region of southwest China’s Sichuan province.
The mass destruction of bamboo forests could see the total extinction of the giant panda in the next three generations, said specialists from the World Wide Fund for Nature.
At least 1,500 giant pandas live in the wild in Gansu, Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces.
–IANS/RIA Novosti
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Tags: animal bones, bamboo forests, china central television, chinese pandas, dateline, extinction, eyewitnesses, forests in china, gansu, giant panda, giant pandas, jg, pandas, pig pens, ria novosti, shaanxi provinces, sichuan province, southwest china, three generations, traditional diet