goes on display at Chiang Mai Zoo
(NECN/APTV) - Thousands of excited visitors flocked to a zoo in northern Thailand on Saturday for the first public viewing of a panda cub born six weeks ago.
Watch video below
A giant panda cub tries to stand on its feet eight days after it was born at the Chiang Mai zoo in northern Thailand
(Photo added 5/29/09)
Photo Credit: (AP)
New Video
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Thais have shown immense interest in the panda since its surprise birth at Chiang Mai zoo at the end of May.
A public competition to name the female cub drew more than half a (m) million entries.
These have been whittled down to four and the name will be chosen next month .
The birth took zoo officials by surprise.
They had tried a number of strategies to get the female Lin Hui pregnant including showing her and her mate videos of their species mating.
Zoo officials eventually turned to artificial insemination.
Officials had noticed the female panda's hormone levels were rising but an ultrasound just weeks before the birth were inconclusive.
The parent animals have been on loan from China for the past six years.
Thailand now joins a select list of countries that have bred pandas in captivity, along with China, Japan and the US.
Baby panda joins celebrity list
Thailand animal lovers celebrate birth of a panda at Chiang Mai Zoo.
This has to be the Southeast Asia’s most famous zoo after global TV networks turned their lens on a remarkable new born baby; a female panda born at Chiang Mai Zoo, late May.
Mum and Dad, Lin Hui and Xuang Xuang, have lived at the northern Thailand zoo for the last six years, under a loan agreement with the Chinese Government that lasts just 10 years.
TV cameras from all major channels focused on the tiny tot made all the more famous because it was conceived by artificial insemination and marked a first for the Thai veterinarian team. Thailand joins the US and Japan as the only countries to breed pandas in captivity.
Born 27 May, after six years of almost comical efforts to get the female panda pregnant, the birth surprised even zoo officials. It turned out to be the month’s good new story rising above the usual negative news that swamps TV viewers.
It was all the more fascinating in the context of past efforts by zoo officials to get the two Chinese pandas to mate naturally. Zoo keepers arranged a mock wedding and even showed them porn movies of other pandas mating. It was a dismal failure, until medical science came to the rescue.
Overnight, the baby was a world celebrity and the only sad note was news that within two years the baby panda would have to return to its homeland.
The panda family is the biggest draw at Chiang Mai Zoo, earning a treasure chest in gate fees that have reached an astronomical figure. You would have to be a football star to attract a fan club of the size the panda family has drawn to the zoo.
Tourists and residents flock to this northern zoo to watch these rare creatures in their posh quarters.
Leading the family’s admirers, Thailand’s Prime Minister, Abhisit Vejjaijiva, says he will check out if China might be prepared to relax regulations and allow the baby to stay beyond the two years stated in the loan contract.
If successful, the baby could possibly remain with mum and dad until their stay in Thailand concludes in another four years.
While sensitive talks between PMs unfold the zoo is planning to celebrate the panda’s birth in style.
Thousands of visitors are expected to visit the zoo just to see this tiny tot a rare site for travellers interested in these cute and iconic creatures.
Since the grown-up pandas arrived, the zoo’s gate rose to around 3,000 visitors on a weekend. But there is a good deal more to see at this zoo. It is credited with being probably the best in the country and even has a night safari zoo.
There are various activities arranged by the zoo to attract visitors. This month, 12 to 21 June the zoo hosts the World Animal Art and Photo Gallery, that encourages visitors and residents to enter their favorite animal photos in a contest. They have to depict animals smiling, not an easy task if the subject is a crocodile. In addition, the zoo features a water color painting workshop; rare animal photo auction, finger paint, photo fair and gallery.
A must-watch video
"The birth of baby panda"
May 28, 2009
Lin Hui, a 7 year 7 month panda, gave birth to her first child on Wednesday 27th May 2009 at Chiang Mai Zoo, Thailand. This VDO was taken by Chiang Mai Zoo staff.
Beware of constant squeaking noise from the baby panda. I am not sure if it should sound like kitten or puppy. But it's so cute.
Thailand's elephants are black and white
and mad all over as public interest shifts
to new panda cub
The Thai public's fascination with that sort-of-cute giant panda cub born last month is understandable -- it's Thailand's first successful captive panda birth ever -- but it also has a downside. Pity the poor Asian elephants, the animals that used to hold Thai heartstrings but have now been relegated to also-ran status.
What's a Thai elephant keeper to do? Why, paint their giant charges with vivid, panda-style watercolors, of course! That's just what the staff at the Ayutthaya Elephant Kraal did to make a statement about their beloved pachyderms' loss of status.
The government was showering money on the Chinese pandas, while ignoring its own national symbol, the elephant.
The Chiang Mai Zoo, home to the new panda cub, even plans to build a "snow house" for its burgeoning panda family at a cost of 20 million baht (nearly $600,000 U.S.), the Post reported. So where's the 20-million-baht gold-plated elephant mud hole?
After receiving their extensive paint jobs, the elephants were paraded before a group of apparently jubilant children who seemed to have forgotten all about pandas. Except for the fact that the elephants looked just like ... oh, never mind. More photos after the jump!
June 10, 2009
ทีมงานได้แยกลูกหมีเพื่อตรวจสุขภาพ และชั่งน้ำหนักในช่วงเวลา 9.30 น. ขณะนี้ลูกแพนด้ามีน้ำหนัก 500 กรัม เพิ่มจากเดิม 105 กรัม ความยาวลำตัว 22 เซนติเมตร เพิ่มจากเดิมจำนวน 2 เซนติเมตร หางยาว 6 เซนติเมตร มีสีดำเกิดขึ้นที่บริเวณขาหลังจากปลายเท้า เกือบถึงบริเวณหัวเข่า สีดำบริเวณหู และตา รวมไปถึงขาหน้าชัดเจนมากขึ้น ดวงตามีรอยขีดของเปลือกชัดเจนเพิ่มขึ้น เจ้าหน้าที่พบการขยับของดวงตาภายใน ใบหูมีสีดำชัดเจน เริ่มพบการพัฒนาของรูหูโดยมีรอบบุ๋มลึกลงไ ปเล็กน้อย ทีมงานจะตรวจสุขภาพอีกในวันที่ 13 มิถุนายน 2552
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