Panda bite is a mark of honor

Liu Yunkang has been bitten several times by dogs, but he never expected to be bitten by a panda.

"I am fortunate to have been bitten by China's national treasure that people from around the world come a long way to see," joked the 59-year-old farmer from Nanyue village in Dujiangyan, Sichuan province.

At noon on Friday, a wild panda came down from the mountain to the village at around 1,200 meters above sea level on the banks of the Longxi River.

"It walked about 100 and 200 meters before crossing the river to reach the mountain slope on the other side," said Yang Guoxiang, a 65-year-old villager who was the first to spot the panda.

Planting potatoes in her fields, Yang called her husband Wu Tianfu who happened to see Liu Yunkang riding a motorbike nearby.

Because the panda was very dirty and walked very slowly, Wu and Liu thought it might have been sick and decided to drive it back down the mountainside so that villagers could help it.

"Staff members of the Longxi-Hongkou National Nature Preserve have told villagers time and again to report sick and injured pandas," Wu told China Daily on Sunday.

The pursued panda became nervous and turned round and bit Liu's left leg when the farmer got too close and touched its head. It then disappeared into the forest.

"A checkup in a local clinic showed the bite wound was made by two teeth and it wasn't serious. And I used to think pandas were docile," Liu said.

But Zhao Zhilong, bureau chief of the Longxi-Hongkou preserve, said that pandas are very powerful when they attack.

"They can kill a sheep with their bite. In Liu Yunkang's case, the panda was very tender," he said.

Judging by the bite, Zhao thought the panda was an adolescent driven away by its mother to live on its own.

"Pandas live in the mountains 1,600 meters above sea level. This panda might have come to the low-lying areas where people live due to inexperience. It did not come down to look for food because there are many kinds of bamboo at high altitude," Zhao said.

Although the Wenchuan earthquake on May 12, 2008 wrought havoc in Dujiangyan, it had little effect on pandas in the Longxi-Hongkou preserve.

From 2009 to 2011, infrared cameras installed in the reserve took 15 images of wild pandas.

"Judging by the DNA of panda droppings, we think there must be between six and eight wild pandas in the preserve," Zhao said.

Although he thought the panda was healthy because it fled quickly, Zhao sent two staff members of the reserve to search nearby forests in case it was sick or injured.

huangzhiling@chinadaily.com.cn