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Chinese zoo uses a TV to cheer up its lonely panda

When most of us are home alone and bored, we turn on the TV.

Now Sijia the giant panda can do the same.

Sijia, a resident of Yunnan Wild Animal Park in Kunming city, China, recently said goodbye to her pen mate, Meixi.

Sijia and Meixi had been rescued from the Wolong National Natural Reserve in Sichuan province following the devastating 2008 earthquake that left them both orphaned and homeless.

Last month, Meixi was released back into the wild. Keepers deemed Sijia not ready to join her.

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It wasn't long before staff at the park noticed Sijia was exhibiting signs of loneliness and depression since her best friend left. She began throwing tantrums and wasn't eating well.

So they tried to distract her with toys, and then a playground set: parallel bars, swings and a climbing apparatus. When Sijia still appeared downtrodden, they gave her a flat screen TV that plays footage of Sijia and Meixi playing together as cubs.

The entertainment strategy appears to be working.

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"Today Sijia is in a much better state than before. When she comes out she naturally climbs on the swing and just starts swinging, and proactively climbs up on the bars. But if it had been in that period before, sometimes she would have just laid on the platform not moving at all," Bai Tuo told the China News Service.

Once uninterested in food, Sijia now snacks on bamboo as she watches her favourite TV show: video clips of the friend she misses.

"It is still early days yet, but we are cautiously optimistic that we may have given her enough to do to stop her getting more depressed," said spokesman De Liu.