THAILAND: Male panda Chuang Chuang enjoys a birthday bash at Chiang Mai Zoo

Chiang Mai's zoo held birthday celebrations for its male Chinese panda Chuang Chuang on Monday (August 6) by giving him an ice cake with bamboo and fruit. More than 200 school children came to the party at the zoo, some 700 km (435 miles) north of Bangkok. Some of them wore northern hill tribe costumes and painted their cheeks with a panda face and the number "7" to celebrate the giant panda's seventh birthday. Two weeks of preparations still managed to surprise Chuang Chuang, who was given an icy cake covered with apples, carrots, pumpkins, taro, corn, turnip, grapes and various types of bamboo. While he tucked into his cake, the children sang "happy birthday". Chuang Chuang and his partner Lin Hui, who arrived in Chiang Mai from China in 2003, have been lent to the zoofor 10 years and have become a major attraction there. "I just feel like he is my child. He is naughty and loves to play all the time. We spent almost two weeks preparing this ceremony. I want him to feel special on his special day," said the zoo's vet Kannika Nimtragul. However, ever since Chuang Chuang got "married" two years ago, his love life has become a matter of public concern. Lin Hui was artificially inseminated in April after Chuang Chuang failed to mate with her despite being encouraged with "panda porn" -- videos of other pandas copulating. While some children wrote birthday cards wishing Chuang Chuang good health and happiness, others wrote that they hoped he would have a baby as soon as possible. Zoo officials said panda-lovers, anxious for a new arrival, will have to wait until next week for full confirmation of Lin Hui's pregnancy by ultrasound. ENDS.

ITN Source | August 12, 2007

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