Gu Gu

Gu Gu is a six year old male Giant Panda at the Beijing Zoo. He has recently come to fame in national and international news for an incident on September 19, 2006 in which he bit a Chinese man who had jumped into his enclosure. [http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/09/20/panda.bite.ap/index.html] Zhang Xinyan (35), the victim of the panda attack, is a migrant worker from the central Henan province who was visiting Beijing "to visit the pandas." [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/5364058.stm BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Man bites panda after zoo attack ] ] Zhang admits to having had four draft beers shortly before going to the zoo and while looking at the pandas "felt a sudden urge to touch one." The inebriated tourist cleared the railing around the enclosure, managed to approach the sleeping panda undetected, and moved to hug Gu Gu. When the shocked bear bit Mr. Zhang on both legs, he retaliated: "I bit the panda on its back but its fur was too thick," Mr Zhang stated. Apparently the drunken tourist had a slightly cuddlier image of pandas, complaining, "No one ever said they would bite people. I just wanted to touch it. I was so dizzy from the beer." Zoo officials sedated Gu Gu by spraying him with water.

Mr. Zhang was hospitalized after the incident. The Zoo reported that besides a one and a half day loss of appetite, the panda was unharmed. The Beijing Zoo announced that it does not plan to press any charges at this time, but will be installing cameras to monitor the panda area. On October 23 2007, a 15 year old boy called Li Xitao went into Gu Gu's pen, and the startled panda responded by biting him repeatedly, "tearing chunks out of his legs." It is of now unclear whether the boy will face any criminal charges.

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