Pandas are, no matter how many lovely videos you have watched, never approach a giant panda in the wild. They have strong jaws and legs that are capable of causing severe damage.

Attacks on humans by giant pandas occur very rarely, even though pandas are reared in captivity. The giant panda belongs to the carnivore order, and the ailurodontine tribe is found in Sichuan and Gan’s Chinese provinces. China classifies the giant panda as an important national treasure and offers it Grade 1 Protection under the act. To alert the public to the giant panda’s potentially dangerous nature, we present three incidents of panda attacks on people at the Beijing Zoo from September 2006 to June 2009. The clinical care adhered to the WMA (Helsinki Declaration) standards for research involving human subjects.

Case report

Case 1

On September 19, 2006, a drunk English teacher in Beijing who went into the panda enclosure with his 28-year-old partner was mauled by a panda called Zhang XX., This giant panda seriously mauled his calf, and it was discovered to have an open wound. After the injection of a tetanus antitoxin, the debridement was done in the middle of the night. The patient’s wounds were eccentric, most likely a result of their battle with the giant panda’s attack. On the 7th day after the initial debridement, a latissimus dorsi muscle flap and skin graft were performed to cover his wound.

Case 2

A 32-year-year-old visitor to the Beijing Zoo named Zhang XX fell into the panda enclosure on January 7, 2009, resulting in a yearlong ordeal that ended with him being mauled to death. One of his left calves was bitten seriously by the panda bear and found to have an open and healed wound with an underlying congenital disability (Figure 2). The damage started to recover after three treatments with VSD debridement. He had his debrided latissed tissue covered with a latissimus dorsi flap 12 days after the first debridement.

Case 3

On June 7, a 39-year-year-old visitor to the Beijing Zoo called Ma XX dropped into a panda enclosure. The giant panda took a chunk out of his left leg and a punch in the elbow from his right side. Debridement was performed on the injury, and a VSD was done. He had a free latissimus dorsi flap ten days after the first debridement on his left arm and a free skin graft on his left foot a few days later.