A giant panda was seriously injured during a fight among four pandas on Monday, and experts speculated they were fighting for courtship.

The pandas, found only in Shaanxi and Sichuan provinces in west China, were seen by Chen Changfu, a local farmer and animal protection officer in Baoji, a city in western Shaanxi.

Watching Chen approach, three of the fighting pandas ran away, but one lay on the ground with serious injury.

The injured panda, later determined to be a 13-year-old female, was sent to a local protection station, where veterinarians found three wounds in her back, buttocks and near one of her shoulder joints.

She is receiving medical treatment.

(Xi'an Evening News January 8, 2007)