Caught on camera: a vicious panda fight
Print Edition
Wildlife authorities said they captured rare video footage of two pandas engaging in a wrestling match so fierce that it left one panda with a bloody face.
The 17-minute face-off happened around midnight between December 9 and 10 on a snowy field with snapped saplings at the Haoziping sanctuary in Pingwu County in southwest China鈥檚 Sichuan Province, according to the Giant Panda National Park.
The video clips, retrieved from infrared cameras, showed the two endangered bears mauling each other鈥檚 heads, performing wrestle holds and entwining themselves in a single ball of black-and-white fury.
In one clip, a panda was pinned to the ground with clear bloodstains on its face.
Experts said the gender of the wrestlers was yet to be determined, but judging from their fighting styles, it was likely to be two males vying for a mate.
鈥淲ild pandas usually snarl when confronting each other or vying for territory. Fierce tussles only happen in mating season,鈥 said Zhang Hemin, a panda expert with the park.
Zhang said mating season fights can happen when a male panda tries to force itself upon a female, but the intensity of this fight suggested it was males fighting over a female.
Although December is early for pandas to be in heat, previous field observations have recorded such occurrences. This mating season has seen frequent discoveries of panda mating sites.
鈥淭his indicates the strong fecundity of the wild panda population,鈥 Zhang said.
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