Story By: John Feng, Sub-Editor:  Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report

AsiaWire

This is the moment a hapless panda cub traps itself between two tree trunks and another bear tries in vain to nudge it free before their caretakers arrive to hack the log down.

Footage supplied to Asia Wire shows the one-year-old giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) cub having trapped its entire body in the tree, with its mate pushing, pulling and biting in a bid to free it.

The panda nearly manages to escape but its right hind leg remains stuck between the two trunks.

Visitor Ms Li said it happened at the Dujiangyan Panda Base in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province in south-western China, on 28th March.

AsiaWire

It was the third day of panda bases officially reopening amid the coronavirus health crisis, and not many tourists were around, the mum said.

Ms Li told Asia Wire: “My husband and I drove all the way there for our child on Saturday.

“We came across the poor cub stuck in the tree. My husband filmed it. It just over a year old.”

In the video, one of the panda’s caretakers distracts it with fresh bamboo shoots while other staff at the panda base try to saw through the tree trunk and hammer it down.

The distracted panda is still noshing on its favourite food when its rescuers manage to break the trunk, only to drop the entire thing on its back, the video shows.

Ms Li said the panda was not harmed.

Her husband Mr Li said: “They weren’t very professional. They just chopped the whole thing down!”

Mr Li said his family have been offered a one-year free pass to the panda research facility for documenting the hilarious incident.

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