Thailand's government has prepared to negotiate with the Chinese government to allow a new-born panda and its parents to stay longer in Thailand, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti said in Bangkok Tuesday.
On May 27, Lin Hui, the female panda in the Chiang Mai Zoo in the Thailand's northern province of Chiang Mai, delivered her first baby, which has become the first panda born in Thailand and the world for 2009.
The baby panda has rapid physical development as it is increasingly getting black hair around its ears, front and back legs.
Now, the black patches are forming around its eyes. With an 18-centimeter-physical length, it weights 290 grams.
A delegate from Thailand's Zoological Park Organization will travel to China for negotiation on the extension of staying in Thailand of the panda family, said Suwit.
Thailand's Zoological Park Organization has been assigned to conduct a feasibility study to establish a permanent reproduction research center of pandas in Thailand as the Sino-Thai cooperation project, he said.
The first round of the negotiation will be done by the delegate from the Zoological Park Organization, while the government-level negotiation will be made in late June, he said.
The Thai government believes that China will be confident in Thailand's capability and experience after having raised Lin Hui and male panda Chuang Chuang for six years, he said.
The minister also presented a birth certificate for the new panda cub.
Currently, the zoo's visitors will see the newly-born panda and its mother Lin Hui through closed circuit television.
Lin Hui and 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, while any cub will be returned to China after two years of its birth.
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.
(Xinhua News Agency June 2, 2009)
