Watch a panda gnaw on takin bones for the first time

Video: The bamboo-loving creature is rarely filmed eating the bones of dead animals

Watch a panda gnaw on takin bones for the first time. (ITN)

Researchers in China have captured a giant panda gnawing on the bone of a dead animal, the first time the bamboo-eating animal has been seen eating takin bone.

A takin is a goat-antelope creature and the footage was filmed at the Foping Nature Reserve in Shaanxi Province.

The giant panda gnawed on the bone for around 20 minutes and finished about half of the thigh bone before leaving.

A member of staff said the giant is approaching mid- to old-age and that the takin is believed to have died in the mid-spring.

Scientists have seen pandas eating the bodies of dead wild animals in the past but they have never seen them gnawing at the bones of takins.

Experts at the Foping Nature Reserve believe the panda in question may have been trying to supplement its calcium diet during the winter. Previous studies have shown that ageing pandas tend to suffer from osteoporosis, a disease that causes bones to become weak, fragile and break.