实锤！大熊猫吃肉被发现了，巡护员：它捧着一根骨头啃得正香…

实锤！大熊猫吃肉被发现了，巡护员：它捧着一根骨头啃得正香…… | Giant Panda was Found Eating Meat!Ranger: It was Gnawing at Bones with a Good Appetite

A wild giant panda has been caught on camera gnawing at the bones of a dead takin, an animal similar to a goat antelope found in Northwest China's Shaanxi province.

一只野生大熊猫被抓拍到正在啃食一头羚牛的骨头。羚羊类似于山羚羊，分布在中国西北部陕西省。

This species of bears, whose ancestor was omnivorous, is believed to sporadically eat dead animals after it was forced to change its diet to bamboo.

大熊猫的祖先是杂食动物。据说，在被迫改食竹子后，大熊猫偶尔会吃动物尸体。

While counting the number of giant pandas in a field population survey, ranger Li Shuiping and a team from the Foping National Nature Reserve in Shaanxi, took the pictures of a wild giant panda gnawing on the bones of a takin.

陕西佛坪国家级自然保护区巡护员李水平等人在实地调查大熊猫数量时，拍下了一只野生大熊猫啃食羚牛骨头的照片。

"When we found the panda, it was less than 50 meters away from us. There is no bamboo forest on this large mountain slope so we were wondering what it was eating as we kept observing," Li told Xinhua.

“我们发现它时，距离不到50米。这一大片山坡上没有竹林，它能吃啥呢？吃得这么香？”李水平告诉新华社，他们一直在观察它在吃什么。

Li mentioned that the "thing" the wild panda was eating turned out to be "the bones of a dead takin that were more than a foot long."  

原来，李水平提到野生大熊猫吃的“东西”是一根超过一英尺长的羚牛骨头！

"The panda enjoyed its food for about 10 minutes before it dropped the bones and walked slowly into the woods on the hillside and climbed up a big tree," Li said.

李水平表示，它吃了大概10分钟，然后扔下骨头，慢慢走进山坡上的林子里，爬上一棵大树。

Researchers also found that the feces of the panda after eating meat were different from the usual bamboo diet.

研究人员还发现，与通常食竹大熊猫的粪便相比，大熊猫吃肉后的粪便有所不同。

The feces of pandas that usually eat bamboo are called "qingtuan" like the traditional Chinese green rice dumpling. The China Academy Science (CAS) Chengdu Branch explained that they named the droppings after the food for the shape and "fragrance of bamboo."

通常，食竹熊猫的粪便被称为“青团”，其形似中国传统绿色粽子。中国科学院（CAS）成都分院解释说，之所以用食物的名字命名这些粪便，是因为它们的形状和“竹子的清香”。

As they collected feces samples they found that, compared with the droppings of the common giant panda, the color of these clusters was gray and white, like a "spindle-shaped lime stick," according to the report.

据报道，在收集粪便样本时，他们发现，与普通大熊猫粪便相比，这些粪便的颜色灰白，就像一根“梭形的石灰棒”。

This is the second image of a wild giant panda captured eating meat in the Foping National Nature Reserve.

这是第二次在佛坪国家级自然保护区拍摄到野生大熊猫吃肉。

Still, bamboo occupies 99 percent of the catering habits of wild pandas and only in rare cases would they eat meat, according to the CAS. A proper explanation for this sudden meat-eating behaviour is that the animal needs "to absorb other nutrients the body requires when necessary," Sun Quanhui, biologist of the World Animal Protection, told the Global Times on Sunday.

据中国科学院介绍，竹类占据野生大熊猫日常饮食的99%，只有在极少数情况下它们才会吃肉。周日，世界动物保护协会生物学家孙全辉在接受《环球时报》采访时表示，对这种突然肉食行为的一个恰当解释是，动物需要在必要时吸收身体所需的其他营养。

Originally carnivore, this species was forced to change its diet to bamboo to adapt to the changing climate and habitat. Yet, experts say that its digestive system still "retains the traits of a carnivore, just like their ancestors."

大熊猫最初是食肉动物。为了适应气候与栖息地环境的不断变化，大熊猫被迫改变了食性，特化为专食竹子。然而，专家表示，大熊猫的消化系统结构依然保留着食肉类祖先的特征。

"Wild pandas mainly prey on the remains of a wide range of dead animals," mentioned Li Sheng, researcher at Peking University and expert at International Union for Conservation of Nature, adding that there had been several records of wild pandas "eating meat occasionally" in areas around the Qinling Mountains.

北京大学研究员、世界自然保护联盟（IUCN）专家李晟认为，野生大熊猫“主要是取食动物残骸”，并补充说，在秦岭周围地区有几项“野生大熊猫偶尔会‘打牙祭’”的记录。

重点词汇：

gnaw

英 [nɔː]；美[nɔː]  

v. 咬；啃；啮

omnivorous

英 [ɒmˈnɪvərəs]；美[ɑːmˈnɪvərəs]  

adj. 杂食的；（尤指）动、植物都吃的；兴趣广泛的

feces

英 [ˈfiːsiːz]；美[ˈfiːsiːz]  

n. 粪便；排泄物；渣滓

droppings

英 [ˈdrɒpɪŋz]；美[ˈdrɑːpɪŋz]  

n.（鸟、小动物等的）粪

carnivore

英 [ˈkɑːnɪvɔː(r)]；美[ˈkɑːrnɪvɔːr]  

n. 食肉动物