Terrifying Video Shows Two Pandas Pouncing On, Mauling Zookeeper

The footage, recorded at China's Chongqing Zoo on Tuesday, shows a zookeeper being mauled by two pandas as her co-worker tries to pull them off.

A terrifying video recorded at the Chongqing Zoo in Chongqing, China shows a pair of pandas pouncing on a zookeeper as she entered their enclosure to feed them a treat. The Daily Mail obtained the footage of the non-fatal attack, recorded by witnesses on Tuesday.

As the zoo worker enters the enclosure, one panda immediately charges her while another follows close behind. The first panda nips at the employee’s feet while the second panda jumps over the back of its pal and tackles the zookeeper to the ground. The second panda starts gnawing at the woman’s arm and tries to get at her face while she attempts to fend off both animals.

After one of the pandas tires of its endeavor and scampers up a nearby tree, the woman is able to get out from underneath the other animal and makes a run for it. As the remaining panda jumps on her back and tries to bring her back down, another zoo worker rushes to the woman’s aid and helps her distract the panda with a snack.

According to reports, the female zookeeper only sustained minor injuries in the attack. Her co-worker made it out entirely unscathed.

One Chongqing local reported (via The Daily Mail) that the attack “happened because the zookeeper looks inexperienced. She should have run away, but instead, she tried to stop them.”

While panda attacks on humans are fairly rare, there is a history of the supposedly cuddly creatures turning on a dime. A 2014 study detailed three separate “giant panda” attacks at the Beijing Zoo from September 2006 through June 2009 in an effort “to warn people of the giant panda’s potentially dangerous behavior.”

Grisly photographs included within that report show how devastating a panda attack can be for the human body. However, a 2022 USA Today article claimed that “there are no records of a panda having killed a human.”