The astonishing footage shows a curious giant panda climbing to the top of a tree to retrieve a zoo visitor's colourful hydrogen balloon that was stuck in the canopy.

Footage shows the panda, named Haoyue, scaling the tree to collect the red and white balloon tangled in the branches at a zoo in the city of Yueyang, in Hunan, southern China, on February 15.

Haoyue was seen grasping the balloon, filled with the highly flammable hydrogen gas, with its teeth before carefully navigating its way down and leaving zoo visitors amazed at the sight.

The panda then began chewing on the balloon, having mistaken it for bamboo.

Later, zoo authorities said the panda was fine despite its unusual dish and has banned visitors from bringing balloons into the zoo.

A spokesman said: 'The panda vomited the balloon out later. The panda is fine. We have banned people from bringing hydrogen balloons to the zoo.'

The giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) is endemic to China and classified as 'Vulnerable' on IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species.

According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the current wild panda population is estimated at 1,864.