Thread: Panda gives birth in Thai zoo

Channel three pushed aside its 'news' to run this Panda story from 6 to past 6:30 am. It could have run until 7 am. Every time I took a look it was still running this news. This is what Thailand is really about. I hope a Panda is born on the big day of dread so we can enjoy that rather than the same old stuff we have seen for decades.

That panda exhibit up there quite popular. Long lines....best wishes to the happy couple.

Why does this new born panda look familiar?

Originally Posted by Panda

I wasnt me!!!

I hope not - as I would say that is an occupation reserved for Thais

Originally Posted by Moonraker

Why does this new born panda look familiar?

Cause it looks like the old Panda?

How to Make a Croc Look Cuddly: Paint It Like a Panda
JAMES HOOKWAY and WILAWAN WATCHARASAKWET
DECEMBER 5, 2009

Bears From China Are a Hit in Thailand, Prompting Makeovers of Local Animals


A juvenile crocodile painted as a panda
James Hookway/The Wall Street Journal

BUENGCHAWARK, Thailand -- For aquarium worker Kamla Maneegan, painting baby crocodiles to look like crowd-pleasing giant pandas is more than just a job -- it's a point of national pride.

Ever since a pair of pandas on loan from China gave birth to a cub in May, Thailand has gone ga-ga for the black-and-white bears.

One television network broadcasts 24-hour coverage of the cub, Lin Ping, on its "Panda Channel" as she chows down on bamboo shoots, plays with tires and nuzzles her mother. Street vendors and fashion designers have incorporated panda motifs into their work, and the country's top zoologist has taken to wearing a panda costume for TV interviews. Panda fever appeared to reach a fresh peak in October, when two armed men held up a gas station in Bangkok and made off with two stuffed pandas -- leaving the cash register untouched.

Attendance at the Chiang Mai Zoo in northern Thailand has surged since the birth of Li Ping, a baby panda. Now some aquariums and animal parks are going to extremes to make sure that crowds keep coming to their attractions -- they're painting crocodiles to look like the cuddly black and white critters.

The pandas are part of China's efforts to step up trade and political ties in Southeast Asia. In 2003, it rented a pair of pandas to Thailand's Chiang Mai Zoo for $300,000 a year -- a sharp discount from the $1 million a year China typically charges zoos in the U.S.

The birth of Lin Ping this year was a cash bonanza for the zoo, as well as an achievement for Thai zoologists. The only other countries besides China to have bred a panda cub are Japan and the U.S. "It's like winning the lottery," says Sophon Dumnui, director-general of Thailand's Zoological Park Association, this time wearing a suit and tie rather than his panda outfit.

Visitors to the zoo doubled to 1.2 million the first year the pandas were there, he says, bringing in an average of $2.7 million a year, including souvenirs. The arrival of Lin Ping in July brought additional revenue of $1.5 million in just six months.

It's all too much for some Thais, though. They worry that amid all this pandemonium Thailand is forgetting its own endangered species, especially the elephant and the crocodile. Their response: If you can't beat the panda-huggers, join them, preferably with the help of a couple of jars of black and white paint.

At several sites across the country, commercial aquariums and animal parks are painting their animals in panda colors to keep up visitor numbers in the face of tougher competition -- as well as educate people about the threats elephants and crocodiles face in the wild.

Mr. Kamla, a 25-year-old crocodile-handler, fielded a barrage of questions from schoolchildren recently at Buengchawark Underwater Sea Paradise as he and a colleague painted a three-month-old Siamese crocodile in panda colors.

"They're an endangered species, too, like the panda, so we hope some of our knowledge will trickle down," Mr. Kamla says.

Prasit Vejprasit, an administrator at the aquarium, says busloads of schoolchildren -- the mainstay of the aquarium's business -- continue coming to the site, a couple of hours' travel northwest of Bangkok, encouraged in large part by the panda-colored crocs. He says teachers often call to confirm the aquarium is still painting crocodiles before sending their classes.

The children seem to enjoy the novelty. "Most crocodiles are scary but this one is cute," says Siripob Dara, 9 years old, before he asks Mr. Kamla how long it can grow and what it eats.


Lin Ping

Applying the panda makeover can be tricky. Juvenile crocs wriggle around making little chirping noises, and some visitors question whether a fresh lick of paint harms the animals. (The aquarium says it uses thinned-down watercolors, which wash off quickly.) Mr. Prasit says painting adult crocodiles can be dangerous. "It takes about three people to hold them down, and once it's done the paint comes off as soon as they slip into the water," he says. In many ways, he says, "it's a waste of time."

Elephants pose a problem, too, mostly because of their size. Sometimes step ladders are used to get to those hard-to reach spots behind the ears.
The painting practice has stirred up debate. Images of panda look-alikes, only with sharper teeth or trunks, have streamed onto video and photo-sharing sites, while Thais and others argue the rights and wrongs of painting animals.

Mr. Sophon, the zoologist, writes off the practice as a marketing gimmick -- much as he tries to promote Chiang Mai's pandas by occasionally suiting up in his panda outfit.

Other conservationists say a useful point is being made by making other animals look like bears. "Elephants are huge and we need lots of money to feed them," says Laithongrien Meepan, owner of the Royal Elephant Kraal in Ayutthya and an experienced handler.

Earlier this year, he began painting elephants to draw attention to the problems Thailand's elephant population faces. "The government should help promote elephants, and not just pandas," Mr. Laithongrien says.

Some of Thailand's wildlife is endangered because of years of rapid economic development. Agriculture in particular has become a major export industry here. Modern farming methods have introduced pesticides into the environment and encroached on the territory of the fearsome Siamese crocodile, which can grow to four to five meters in length. So few are left in the wild that conservationists once thought it was extinct and have reintroduced some farm-reared crocodiles back into the natural habitat.

Elephants, meanwhile, have seen their numbers dwindle over the past century, with conservationists estimating that 1,500 live wild in Thailand's natural parks, while a similar number are domesticated. Some can often be seen being led around downtown Bangkok streets by their mahouts looking for food.

The cub Lin Ping is supposed to be sent to China when she reaches two years -- in about 18 months -- and many Thais, especially children, find it hard to face up to that possibility. Street vendors in Chiang Mai, meanwhile, consider the panda cub a mini-stimulus package. "I sell twice as much now as I did before Lin Ping was born," says Darunee Na Chiang Mai, a 40-year-old juice and noodle vendor who runs a stall outside the zoo.

Local politicians have proposed keeping Lin Ping in Thailand by creating a joint panda-breeding program in Chiang Mai with China, which would be a world first. China has said it will "think about it," Mr. Sophon says, and he remains hopeful. China, after all, has been gifting or lending pandas as part of its diplomatic missions for centuries, ever since the Empress Wu Zetian sent a pair of giant pandas to the emperor of Japan in 685. Chinese authorities didn't respond to requests for comment.

In the meantime, Mr. Kamla says he is resigning himself to giving his crocs their daily beauty treatment to keep up with the competition in this new, post-panda Thailand. "It's impossible not to do it now," he says as another batch of schoolchildren swarm around him for a closer a look at the panda-colored crocodiles. "People expect it."

online.wsj.com

I for one can't wait till they get rid of the stupid thing. Everywhere you go here in Chiang Mai there are panda pictures, signs, billboards, there is even a 24hr TV channel dedicated to the thing. All day, everyday they play a web cam and broadcast the thing taking a nap, taking a shit, eating, etc.

Originally Posted by mobs00

I for one can't wait till they get rid of the stupid thing. Everywhere you go here in Chiang Mai there are panda pictures, signs, billboards, there is even a 24hr TV channel dedicated to the thing. All day, everyday they play a web cam and broadcast the thing taking a nap, taking a shit, eating, etc.

The 24hr UBC webcam of Lin Ping is the highlight of my whole day.

Shame the Chinese / Thai fukcing gaga fascination with welfare of these animals is concerned to Pandas only. Someone should cut off its paws to make a soup..

Panda-monium for cub's first birthday
May 27 2010

Riot-stricken Thailand had something to smile about on Thursday as the nation's only panda cub, who enjoys a cult-like following across the country, celebrated her first birthday in style.

Hundreds of fans gathered at Chiang Mai zoo in northern Thailand for the birthday of Linping, whose birth surprised zookeepers after years of unsuccessful artificial insemination and efforts to get her parents to mate.

A monk's blessing, a panda birthday cake and an ice carving of her name and age were among the gifts for the 36-kilo (79-pound) cub, who has five keepers devoted to her care, before an evening celebration for guests.

Linping has become so popular in her first year that Thai television has a live 24-hour "Panda Channel" following her every move, while a competition to name her last year attracted a staggering 22-million entries.

Lin is part of her mother's name and Ping is a river in Chiang Mai.

"It is very special that people join us today," said Prasertsak Buntragulpoontawee, head of the panda research project at the zoo.

Linping was born to eight-year-old giant panda Lin Hui just three months after receiving semen from nine-year-old partner Chuang Chuang.

The mates had shown no interest in reproducing normally since they both arrived on a 10-year loan from China in 2003. Linping officially belongs to China but can stay in Thailand for another year.

In 2006, Chuang Chuang, who had been deemed too heavy to mate with Lin Hui, lost weight on a low-carbohydrate diet and was then shown 15-minute video clips of successful panda couplings, but to no avail.

Giant pandas, notorious for their low sex drive, are among the planet's most endangered animals. Nearly 1 600 pandas are believed to survive in the wild in China, where more than 200 are also being raised in captivity. - Sapa-AFP

iol.co.za

It's clearly a good omen! Surely it means that the country is being reborn and everything will now be seen in black and white, with no reds or yellows, and the poor street-sellers of gaeng normai and other foods made with bamboo will be rich beyond their wildest dreams, and ... and ... oh bollox - can't be bothered!

Simon

Great, rare for them to give birth or even breed outside China

Originally Posted by Simon43

and ... and ... oh bollox - can't be bothered!

damn , and you got off to such a fine start

Thailand to ask China to let Lin Ping stay for 2 more years

Thai authorities are considering asking China to let Lin Ping, the first female panda born in Thailand, to stay in Thailand's Chiang Mai Zoo for two more years.

Prasertsak Boontrakulpuntawi, head of the zoo's panda-research project, said the contract to keep Lin Ping is going to expire in another six months, after which they have to send her to China.

Following talks to keep Lin Ping longer, Thai officials will have another talk in Thailand with senior Chinese wildlife conservation officials on December 20.

Hopeful for a green light from China, the zoo planned the panda section expansion and requested Bt28.5 million from the Zoological Park Organisation or the government for the 2012 fiscal year.

nationmultimedia.com

Panda 'to stay in Thailand for two more years'
Feb 18, 2011


Linping, Thailand's first giant panda cub, was a sensation even before she was born following years of unsuccessful artificial insemination and efforts to get her parents to mate at Chiang Mai zoo.
PHOTO: AFP

THAILAND - THE first Thailand born panda cub, Lin Ping, will remain at the Chiang Mai Zoo for another two years after China accepted Thailand's request to extend its stay in the Kingdom.

An overjoyed Prasertsak Buntrakulpuntawi, head of Chiang Mai Zoo's panda research project, said on Thursday he had received unofficial news from Chinese authorities that the paperwork for the agreement to lend the 20-month-old female panda to Thailand for two more years had been completed. The date for both sides to sign the deal would be set in one month.

To celebrate the good news, Thai authorities have prepared a grand celebration comprising exhibitions and entertainment activities to coincide with Lin Ping's second birthday in May, he added.

straitstimes.com