This is the moment a short-sighted, or possibly just peckish, panda in China tried to eat a zoo visitor's phone when it was accidentally dropped in her enclosure.

Video footage captured by another wildlife fan shows the panda, Meilan, discovering the handset in her enclosure in Chengdu, Sichuan Province.

Ignoring a fresh batch of tasty bamboo shoots, Meilan picks up the phone and immediately tries to bite it. As visitors shout and laugh, she cautiously puts the phone in her mouth and begins to chew.

Luckily for the owner, Meilan seemed to be just curious as to what it tasted like and was not seriously trying to crunch it to bits because as she gnawed on the mobile, it still seemed to be working.

Experts say pandas have the fifth most powerful carnivore bite force in the world and Meilan could have snapped the phone in half with a twitch of her jaw.

Finally, the mobile slipped from her paws, and she walked off when she was tempted away from the device by her keeper offering an apple.

The filmer said: 'The security worker has been repeatedly reminding everyone to hold onto their phones and not to lean over the railing.

'Someone still managed to drop their phone into Meilan's villa, and she almost ate it. Fortunately, our noise annoyed her, and she was quickly lured away by her keeper with an apple, and then taken for a health check.

'Everyone, please make sure to hold onto your phones; it's even better to have them on a cord.'

Zoo staff later confirmed that Meilan was taken for a medical exam but have not revealed the results.

This is the moment a short-sighted panda tried to eat a zoo visitor's phone when it was accidentally dropped in her enclosure.

Video footage captured by another wildlife fan shows the panda, named Meilan, discovering the handset in her enclosure in Chengdu in Sichuan Province, China.

Ignoring a fresh batch of tasty bamboo shoots, Meilan picks up the phone and immediately tries to eat it. As visitors shout and laugh, she cautiously puts the phone in her mouth and begins to chew.

Luckily for the owner, Meilan seemed to be just curious as to what it tastes like and is not seriously trying to crunch it into bite-sized pieces, because as she gnawed on the mobile, it still seemed to be working.

Experts say pandas have the fifth most powerful carnivore bite force in the world and Meilan could have snapped the phone in half with a twitch of her jaw.

Finally, the mobile slipped from her paws, and she walked off when she was tempted away from the device by her keeper offering an apple.

The filmer said: 'The security worker has been repeatedly reminding everyone to hold onto their phones and not to lean over the railing.

'Someone still managed to drop their phone into Meilan's villa, and she almost ate it. Fortunately, our noise annoyed her, and she was quickly lured away by her keeper with an apple, and then taken for a health check.

'Everyone, please make sure to hold onto your phones; it's even better to have them on a cord.'

Zoo staff later confirmed that Meilan was taken for a medical exam but have not revealed the results.