Giant Panda Baby - Chiang Mai Zoo - Latest Update

BANGKOK, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Jin Yilin, acting Consul-General at the Chinese Consulate in Thailand's northern province of Chiang Mai on Monday went to congratulate and thank the Chiang Mai Zoo concerning the recent birth of the female baby panda.

On Wednesday morning, May 27, Lin Hui, the female panda in the zoo in the city of Chiang Mai, delivered her first baby, which has become the first panda born in Thailand and the world for 2009.

Also, the Chinese Consulate in Chiang Mai will cooperate with the Chiang Mai Zoo to hold a birthday ceremony for the newly-born panda, Thai-language newspaper Matichon newspaper quoted as Jin Yilin saying.

The birthday ceremony for the newly-born panda will strengthen the Sino-Thai relations, according to Jin Yilin.

Tentatively, the birthday ceremony for the newly-born panda will be organized on July 11, Prasertsak Boontragoolpoontawee, head of the zoo's panda section.

The birthday ceremony will be organized in Thailand's northern traditional way, according to Prasertsak.

Meanwhile, the six-day-old baby panda is now increasingly getting black hair around its ears, front and back legs, while the black patches are forming around its eyes.

It weights 260 grams, which is considered the superb development, he said.

Currently, the zoo's visitors, who visit the zoo, will see the newly-born panda and its mother Lin Hui through closed circuit television.

Lin Hui and male panda Chuang Chuang, the father of the newly-born baby panda, have been on loan from China to the Chiang Mai Zoo since 2003, as part of a panda research program. The loan agreement will see the two pandas returned to China after 10 years.

On Feb. 18, 2009, Lin Hui was impregnated with artificial insemination after all efforts to arouse male Chuang Chuang's interest in mating had failed.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - 2nd June 2009