BANGKOK — A tiny, day-old panda cub whose birth surprised Thai zoo officials is a healthy female that appears to be bonding well with its mother, Chinese experts concluded Thursday.
Officials at the Chiang Mai Zoo in northern Thailand had tried for years to breed the rare mammal and did not know the mother was pregnant. Thailand joins the United States and Japan as the only countries outside of China to breed a panda in captivity.
“The panda experts from China said the baby is in good health and strong,” said Sophon Damnui, director of the Zoological Park Organization, which oversees all zoos in Thailand.
Thai newspapers carried photos of the pinkish cub, so small that it could be held in the hands of a zoo staffer. Other pictures showed mother Lin Hui gently holding her baby.
Zoo officials had resorted to sometimes comical strategies to get its two pandas on loan from China to mate over the past six years. They held a mock wedding for the pair, separated them to spark a little romance and then put the male, Chuang Chuang, on a diet.
When that didn’t work, they started showing Chuang Chu ang “porn” videos of pandas mating, and finally turned to artificial insemination.
