A zookeeper at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens stated a young male red panda Friday, which led the animal to scratch the zookeeper.
The zoo told WXIX-TV that “keepers go in with our red pandas all the time and a minor injury during a feeding can happen,” and that the incident was minor, with no effect on the zoo’s operating hours or the status of the red panda exhibit.
Red pandas, despite the name, are not related to the black-and-white giant panda. The small, reddish animals look similar to raccoons.
There are four of the animals in total at the zoo, with the young male and a female partner kept in one area and two other females kept in another, a zoo spokesperson told Newsweek.
Zoo officials attributed the attention the scratch received to an erroneous AI alert.
The zoo told Newsweek that the alert “provided an alarming account of what was actually a minor incident” and used the word “attack” when that was not the case.
“She is fine and so is the red panda,” a zoo spokesperson told Newsweek.
