It's a Girl!!!!

Is she or isn’t she? She was! Lin Hui, the Chiang Mai Zoo’s female panda, (on loan from China with her mate since 2003), who recently received artificial insemination when it became evident that her mate, Xuang Xuang, wasn’t interested, delighted everyone when she gave birth to a baby panda last Wednesday!

We saw Lin Hui in the purpose-built panda enclosure in the Chiang Mai Zoo during our visit to Thailand in 2007 - this is fantastic news considering there are now only estimated to be 3000 pandas left in the wild.

Congratulations to the keepers and veterinarians at Chiang Mai Zoo, and especially to Lin Hui!