Panda ‘ate leg bone for calcium’
Print Edition
A WILD giant panda spotted munching on the leg bone of a dead animal might be doing so to supplement calcium in its diet, experts at a northwestern Chinese nature reserve said.
It is rare for the bamboo-munching bears to be seen eating bones of other animals, but researchers at the Foping Nature Reserve in Shaanxi Province said they observed the panda consume half of the leg bone in 20 minutes during a patrol through the reserve’s bamboo forest on Tuesday.
The bone was later confirmed to belong to a takin — a type of goat antelope — that had died of natural causes, said Liang Qihui, a senior engineer at the reserve.
Experts at the reserve say the panda’s appetite for animal bones may derive from the need to supplement calcium and calories during winter — studies have shown that older pandas suffer from osteoporosis.
There have been reports of wild pandas eating dead animal bodies, and panda dung at the reserve has often been found to contain the remains of birds and other animals.
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