Panda filmed for first time breastfeeding cub in wild, says China state TV
Mother filmed suckling cub in mountains in Shaanxi province, CCTV reports
A giant panda has been filmed for the first time in the wild breastfeeding a cub, according to state television.
The behaviour was filmed by a local TV crew in Foping county in Shaanxi province, CCTV said.
The mother and cub were first sighted in the upper branches of a giant fir tree where they appeared to be resting and taking shelter.
The cub, about two years old, then intimated it wanted to feed and the mother climbed down from the tree and suckled her young while lying on a small slope.
The footage was shot in the depths of the Qinling mountains where a large group of giant pandas still live in the wild.
There were about 345 of the animals counted in a survey two years ago in the government-protected, 360,000-hectare habitat.