Visitors take pictures as giant panda He Ye takes a nap at Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, March 22, 2023. Photo:Xinhua

Two tourists have been banned for life after entering the giant panda breeding base in southwest China and feeding a panda bamboo and peanuts.

A 39-year-old man surnamed Han and a 51-year-old woman surnamed Liang entered the base's giant panda cub enclosure and fed a panda cub bamboo shoots and peanuts on Saturday afternoon, according to a notice from Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Southwest China's Sichuan Province. 

A member of staff stopped the pair and promptly cleared the food items from the outdoor activity area, the notice read. Han and Liang have been banned for life from visiting the research base due to their irresponsible behavior which could have potentially harmed the facility's giant pandas, said the research base. 

After an inspection and observation by base staff, the giant panda who ate the snacks was found to be in a normal physical condition.

The research base said the diet of giant panda must follow strict guidelines, and feeding them without authorization could cause harm to the animals, urging visitors not to feed them, throw items or water at them, or even tap on the glass.

In July, two men were banned for entering the base for five years after one of them spat water at a panda and the other forcefully struck enclosure glass. In April, a woman threw water at a giant panda, upsetting the animal during her visit to the panda valley and was banned from visiting the base for a year.

The Chengdu Research Base for Giant Panda Breeding is one of the major panda breeding bases in China and also a popular tourist site. Fifteen giant panda cubs were born in 2022 at the research base, bringing the number of giant pandas at the base to 237. The average annual growth rate of the captive giant panda population has increased to 12.2 percent thanks to scientific and technological breakthroughs.