After panda porn and a wedding, zoo finally has new cub
Zookeepers in Thailand are celebrating the surprise birth of a panda cub – having given up all hope that the zoo’s two bears would ever mate after staging a mock wedding for the pair and even showing them panda pornography.
In fact, this week’s birth at Chang Mai Zoo came after Lin Hui, a seven-year-old female, was artifiically inseminated in February – although zoo staff had failed to realise she was pregnant despite monitoring rising hormone levels in recent weeks.
As recently as May 11 an ultrasound had failed to show a foetus, zoo director Thananpat Pongamorn told The Associated Press.
But on Wednesday Lin Hui started to experience discomfort, licking herself as if she was suffering stomach pains. The cub was born shortly afterwards and began screeching loudly, Thananpat said.
Chinese panda expert Wei Ming, who inspected the cub on Thursday, said it was a healthy female but said it was crucial to monitor closely the panda’s physical condition during its first week.
While breeding pandas by artificial insemination is fairly common in China, Thailand is only the third country – after the United States – to accomplish the feat.
“It is an ultimate happiness to see the baby panda,” said Thananpat. “We are so happy that we can breed a panda from artificial insemination. Every staff at the zoo is proud and I think every Thai will be proud too.”
Chang Mai Zoo has earned a reputation for its panda stunts since borrowing the pair of bears from China six years ago, including the mock wedding ceremony, putting male panda Xuang Xuang on a diet to try to raise his levels of sexual arousal and finally making the bears watch videos of other pandas mating.
Wei said the panda cub would likely go on public display in about a month’s time if it remains healthy.
