Unruly cruel Chinese tourists are caught throwing rocks at a giant panda 'to wake it up' in Beijing Zoo
- An eyewitness claimed two tourists hit the panda with rocks on Saturday
- Footage catches one of them in action at the panda pavilion in Beijing Zoo
- Zoo said the panda was unhurt and carried on with its daily activities as usual
- Pandas, renowned for their lazy routine, spend 12 hours a day sleeping
A tourist has been caught on camera throwing a rock at a giant panda in popular Beijing Zoo in an apparent attempt to wake up the animal.
Footage of the incident has been filmed by an eyewitness, who saw the people assaulting the animal with stones during her visit on Saturday.
Trending footage uploaded to China's Twitter-like Weibo shows a panda being hit by a piece of rock apparently tossed into the panda enclosure by a tourist in Beijing Zoo on Saturday
An eyewitness who filmed the incident claimed to have seen two tourists throwing stones at the panda in the space of 30 minutes. She said they wanted to wake up the animal
A video of the incident was uploaded onto China's Twitter-like social media platform Weibo yesterday by a panda fan.
In the post, the animal lover claimed to have seen two people throwing stones into the panda pavilion in the space of 30 minutes.
The 38-second clip showed the first person's action and the second culprit who was not filmed threw a larger piece of rock, the eyewitness told The Beijing News.
She added that the tourists intended to wake up the panda with the rocks.
The eyewitness urged the zoo to upgrade its facilities to better protect its pandas.
The incident was said to have taken place inside the zoo's old panda pavilion built in 1989 to celebrate the 1990 Asian Games hosted by the Chinese capital.
A new panda pavilion was built by the zoo in 2008 to celebrate the Beijing Olympics held in the same year.
Beijing Zoo said today that the panda, nicknamed Meng Da, was well and not affected by the incident.
The incident was said to have taken place inside the zoo's old panda pavilion, which was built in 1989 to celebrate the 1990 Asian Games. A panda is pictured in the zoo on April 22, 2019
A new panda pavilion was built by the zoo in 2008 to celebrate the Beijing Olympics. Eight pandas which survived China's deadly Wenchuan earthquake are seen in the zoo in June, 2008
A spokesperson at the zoo told The Beijing News that keepers immediately attended the scene on Saturday to prevent tourists from throwing objects and food at animals.
In a post on its official Weibo account today, the zoo said Meng Da had been eating, excreting, moving around and playing as usual.
The zoo said it planned to renovate the panda pavilion's 'stadium'. It also urged visitors to observe animals in a 'civilised' manner.
Pandas, a symbol of China, are renowned for its slow motion and lazy daily routine.
They spend about half of their day sleeping and another half eating.
The giant panda was removed from the endangered species list in 2016 by The International Union for Conservation of Nature after years of intensive conservation efforts led by Chinese experts.
WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT GIANT PANDAS?
While its numbers are slowly increasing, the giant panda remains one of the rarest and most endangered bears in the world.
There are an estimated 1,800 giant pandas living in the wild and 300 in zoos and breeding centres around the world.
Experts are unclear what age giant pandas can reach in the wild, but the oldest panda reared in captivity so far was 38 years old.
A wild panda's diet is 99 per cent bamboo, with the remaining one per cent made up of small rodents.
Four-month-old baby giant panda Xiang Xiang is pictured getting a physical examination at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo on October 10, 2017
Giant Pandas need to consume around 20 to 40 pounds (10 to 20 kilograms) of bamboo each day to get the nutrients they need.
Giant Pandas stand at around three to four feet tall when standing on all four legs.
Cubs do not open their eyes until they are six to eight weeks of age and are not able to move independently until three months old.
A newborn panda is about the size of a stick of butter, or about 1/900th the size of its mother.
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