Panda escapes confinement, tours Denmark zoo
Humans are not the only ones tiring of confinement through the coronavirus pandemic - a panda escaped from his enclosure at Copenhagen Zoo on Monday.
Xing Er, a 6-year-old male panda - soon to be 7 - then took a tour of the zoo, that was closed at the time.
He was spotted on a surveillance video "leaving his enclosure, slipping under a power fence", zoo spokesman Jacob Munkholm Hoeck told AFP.
The pet wandered around the zoo until an employee noticed it and called a security team.
"The veterinarian of the zoo anaesthetized the panda and he was cut back to the enclosure," Hoeck said.
"There he was presented with an antidote and woke up a short while later."
Xing Er had not been harmed and there have been no human injuries.
Bengt Holst, the zoo's chief scientist, said in a statement that security around the enclosure will be "carefully examined" to "make certain (it) doesn't happen again."
Xing Er and his female mate Mao Sun - who didn't be a part of his escape - found its way to Denmark in April 2019, on loan from the Chinese city of Chengdu.
They are part of the "panda diplomacy" programme setup by China which consists of lending pandas as a way to foster relations with trading partners. - AFP
