AsiaWireA panda was having a snooze in a park when it was rudely interrupted by tourists, who threw stones at the animal to wake it up.
Being woken up from your sleep is never pleasant, and I can imagine being pummelled by small rocks definitely doesn’t make the experience any better. In fact, it’s quite a horrible thing to do.
Some tourists in China didn’t seem to care though, when they threw stones at the panda to wake it up from its peaceful rest.
Watch the cruel footage here:
The culprits were at Foping Panda Valley, in Hanzhong, a city in north-western China’s Shaanxi province on July 20.
They were part of a group of 20-30 tourists who’d been walking through the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) enclosures.
Another visitor filmed the upsetting scene, gaining damning footage which showed the tourists shouting at the bear to try and get its attention and to make it move.
Tim Flach, from Endangered by Tim FlachIn the video, tourists can be seen pointing towards the animal, and a man towards the back of the shot – dressed in a black top – can be seen throwing something towards the seven-year-old male panda, which was resting under a tree.
The Foping Panda Valley park confirmed ‘three to four’ visitors were involved in the vile behaviour, and said they even carried on after being warned by park staff.
After ignoring the requests to leave the animal alone, the tourists were eventually asked to leave the park.
Park manager, Zhen Xihai, explained the offenders were given life bans and told they were no longer welcome at the panda sanctuary.
AsiaWireThe manager said:
We will improve our management of the panda park and also fine the tourists and tourism agency involved.
Should the tourism agency be found guilty of similar uncivilised behaviour again, it and all its guides will be blacklisted and banned from the park too.
I kind of wish the panda had taken on a Kung -Fu Panda style personality and got its own back on the group.
Foping Panda Valley is surrounded by the Shaanxi Qinling Mountains, which are part of the only other wild panda habitat in China – besides the bamboo forests of south-western Sichuan province.
After hearing about the incident, social media users shared their outrage online.
One user wrote:
We should establish a nationwide scenic area alliance to blacklist these sorts of tourists from every tourist spot!
Another added:
They clearly left their brains and manners at home.
Hopefully the panda will be left alone from now on, especially when it’s trying to sleep – they’re much more beautiful with just their natural dark circles around their eyes.
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Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.