Drowning Panda Saved by Villagers
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BEIJING — A drowning giant panda was rescued by villagers from a river in China’s southwest Sichuan province and has been named after its rescuers, the New China News Agency said Wednesday.
Woodcutters jumped into the Dadu River on Oct. 3 and pulled the struggling panda to the bank using ropes and poles after sighting a floating “stump-like thing,” the agency said. They then warmed up the animal with their own clothes.
The female panda has been named Lulu to honor its rescuers, who are residents of Luding County, the agency said, and is on the way to a new home, the provincial Chengdu Zoo.
Logging, poaching and other incursions into wilderness areas have left only 1,000 giant pandas alive in the wild.
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