As the excitement over the Kung Fu Panda film ebbs, a panda in the Beijing Zoo recently reignited the craze after onlookers saw him use unusual physical skills to free himself after being stuck in a gap of wooden stairs in the zoo's panda house.

The 2-year-old panda, Mengmeng, accidently slipped on the stairs while playing and found himself jammed and upside down in a gap between two steps. Alarmed at the sight, several visitors hurried to alert the zoo staff.

But Mengmeng was in a do-it-yourself mode and swung his chunky body violently enough to bend and grasp the stair platform with his paws. He untangled his feet from the stair frame, and managed to free himself within less than five minutes. He landed safely on the ground where he sat gasping for breath to calm himself as a crowd of impressed and amused onlookers broke into applause and cheers for the "real Kung Fu Panda."

Illustration by Zhao Chunqing