Panda "porn" To Boost Mating Efforts At Thai Zoo

[Jai Dee]

Panda "Porn" to Boost Mating Efforts at Thai Zoo

Sometimes married couples just need to add a little spice to their love lives.

A Thai zoo is hoping that "panda pornography" will spark romance between its two giant pandas, which were married by proxy last November in an elaborate Chinese-style ceremony.

Chuang Chuang and Lin Hui have called Thailand's Chiang Mai Zoo home for the past four years. Zoo officials had hoped that the warm Thai climate would spark the pandas' hormones and trigger their desire to mate.

But the animals, on loan from China for ten years, have yet to start a family.

A first mating attempt earlier this year failed to produce offspring, and the pandas have remained platonic pals since then—prompting officials to launch their unique plan.

"They don't know how to mate, so we need to show the male how through videos," project chief Prasertsak Buntrakoonpoontawee told the Reuters news service.

Chuang Chuang, the six-year-old male, will view films of other mating pandas when scientists judge him to be relaxed and receptive—perhaps just after a tasty dinner.

If all goes well, the racy video will be both instructional and inspirational, showing Chuang Chuang the reproductive ropes and causing him to see five-year-old Lin Hui in an entirely different light.

Captive Breeding Essential, But Not Easy

Wild pandas are so reclusive that it is extremely difficult for scientists to study their natural reproductive habits.

Their solitary nature could mean that even some wild animals are unsure of themselves with the opposite sex.

As a result, captive panda breeding has been historically difficult. Yet over the past decade international facilities have acquired a lot of hard-earned knowledge to increase the odds.

For example, the animals are able to breed during only a few days each year, so a suitable male and female must be paired up at precisely the right time.

Once a panda is conceived—naturally or through artificial insemination—new problems arise.

Many young pandas die soon after birth. Newborn cubs weigh 3 to 5 ounces (85 to 142 grams)—just 1/900 of their mother's weight, according to the international conservation group WWF.

The babies are susceptible to pneumonia and other ailments and are totally dependent upon their mothers, which are often inexperienced as parents.

Source: National Geographic News

[Jai Dee]

Chinese expert recommends playing mating sounds to pandas in Chiang Mai

A Chinese expert on giant pandas has recommended playing sound recordings of mating pandas to Chiang Mai Zoo residents Chuang Chuang and Lin Hui in the hope that it will encourage them to follow suit.

Liv He was among 100 specialists from 10 countries with institutions housing giant pandas attending the opening day of the 2006 International Conference on Research and Breeding Techniques on the Giant Panda at Chiang Mai's Lotus Pang Suan Kaew Hotel Monday.

Rathien Srimongkol, the director of the Zoological Organisation of Thailand (ZOT), presided over the opening of the conference, which was being held outside China for the first time.

The conference aims to share information and techniques for preserving and breeding giant pandas. One of the issues to be tackled at the gathering is the ongoing effort to breed Chuang Chuang and Lin Hui, after the first attempt failed at the beginning of this year.

Source: The Nation - 14 November 2006

[guardian]

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[Pink Mist]

will there be a web cam in there?

[helicoptor]

Hey............. Somethings.............Somethings Happening............YES YES YES!

Sponsored by WWW.CHICHI-ONLINE4U.com

[mouse]

Slow News week Jai Dee? Really now.

[Pink Mist]

Slow News week Jai Dee? Really now.

[The Dan Sai Kid]

Maybe the male needs to kink things up a bit. Do they make gimp costumes for pandas?

If not, maybe that's why it is hard to get them to breed.

[Pink Mist]

a bit of "spanish fly" on the bamboo perhaps

[leisurely]

I haven't been there for two years, but I suspect they need a bit of privacy . It was a three ring circus when we visitted, the poor panda's ears were assaulted by people oohing and ahhing when the poor buggers moved. Imagine the effect that would have on your libido

[chanchao]

"So far the videos have not encouraged the male towards amorous endeavors, however visitor numbers to the Thai zoo skyrocketed after the female panda learned how to open bottles and shoot ping pong balls."

Edited November 15, 2006 by chanchao

[Jai Dee]

Thai zoo finds gold in giant pandas' dung

BANGKOK (Reuters) - A Thai zoo has discovered a way to utilise unwanted dung from a couple of pandas by using it to make paper for souvenirs, the country's panda project manager said on Tuesday.

The zoo had improvised a traditional way of making paper from mulberry trees in the northern city of Chiang Mai by using bamboo pulp that the pair of pandas could not digest, Prasertsak Buntrakoonpoontawee said.

The pandas, who are fed chopped bamboo, excrete about 23 kg (50 lb) of the pulp a day, he said.

"We know that any kind of pulp can be used to make paper, so we have applied the 2,000-year techniques of making paper from mulberry tree in this rural neighborhood to bamboo pulp from panda dung," Prasertsak said. The zoo had earned 300,000 baht (4,309 pounds) a year from selling fans, greeting cards, key chains, book marks -- all with panda faces and made from panda excrement paper -- and dried panda dung, enough to fund the project, he said.

The project would be presented at a four-day international panda conference in Chiang Mai that started on Monday, drawing 200 wildlife and panda specialists from around the world.

The zoo would also start to separate the pair -- six-year-old male Chuang Chuang and five-year-old female Lin Hui -- in December in a bid to breed them in captivity as Chaung Chaung would be shown frank videos of how to mate, Prasertsak said.

Source: Reuters - 15 November 2006

[guardian]

Thai zoo finds gold in giant pandas' dung

Do the tourists buying these paper know it's source?

[Gonzo the Face]

Maybe the male needs to kink things up a bit. Do they make gimp costumes for pandas?

If not, maybe that's why it is hard to get them to breed.

Whats Gimp got to do with it...???????? [Just a Pun or inside joke]

Is that a guy who has trouble walking and has a big purple Rincoln or Cadirac ????

..... and by the way , aren't illegalities forbidden on TV ??? I thought Panda-er-ring was against the law >>>

Edited November 15, 2006 by Gonzo the Face

[Jai Dee]

Panda poop paper yields profits for Thai keepers

CHIANG MAI, Thailand: There's the Panda Express fast-food chain. Jing Jing, a mascot for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The forthcoming animated movie, Kung <deleted> Panda. Even a Mexican rock band named after the cuddly bear.

Not to be outdone, Thailand has come up with yet another, seemingly unlikely way to capitalize on this globally loved, bamboo-munching animal — panda poop.

When keepers of the country's panda couple — Chuang Chuang and Lin Hui — got tired of disposing the 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of feces daily produced by the duo, Prasertsak Buntragulpoontawee came up with the idea of turning it all into notebooks, fans, bookmarks and key chains.

"At first the Chinese were very skeptical," says the head of Chiang Mai Zoo's panda unit, referring to the proprietary attitude China takes toward its iconic animal.

But the multicolored paper products have proved hot selling-items at the zoo, with the 300,000 baht (US$8,200; €6,400) earned to date helping balance the accounts of panda keeping.

The Thai government pays US$250,000 (€195,400) a year to China's Wulong Panda Research Institute to rent the pandas, who, depending on the weather, reside in either a US$1 million (€780,600) air-conditioned cage or an extensive, fan-cooled outdoor enclosure ringed by a mini-replica of China's Great Wall.

Panda poop paper production involves a daylong process of cleaning the feces, boiling it in a soda solution, bleaching it with chlorine and drying it under the sun. Experimentation continues on how to reduce the chemicals now used.

Prasertsak says he was inspired by sa paper, or mulberry leaf paper, a traditional, local product which has proved a highly popular gift item in recent years.

"We tried selling it on markets outside but so far with not so much success," he says. "But in the zoo, when people see real pandas and then their product they're excited and buy."

Source: Associated Press - 23 November 2006

[Jai Dee]

Porn sparks panda baby boom in China

Research — and blue movies — attributed to record-high birth rate in 2006

Lin Hui, a female Panda on a ten-year loan from China is seen eating bamboo at Chiang Mai zoo in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Zhang Zhihe, a leading expert, attributes China's record-high panda birth rate to painstaking research — and panda porn.

CHIANG MAI, Thailand - After years of painstaking research, scientists say they have unleashed a baby boom among one of the world’s most beloved but endangered animals, China’s giant panda.

A bit of panda porn has helped too, they say.

“It works,” enthuses Zhang Zhihe, a leading Chinese expert, about showing uninitiated males DVDs of fellow pandas mating.

It is one of many techniques tried over the decades to get captive pandas — notoriously poor breeders — to do it, and do it right. The efforts to understand and simulate conditions for mating and raising cubs have paid off in China, the panda’s native habitat. Now comes the next test: getting the magic to work outside China.

The big day will come in January, when Prasertsak Buntragulpoontawee hopes to bring off a successful mating between male Chuang Chuang and partner Lin Hui in this northern Thailand city.

The audio-visual approach “is the same idea as chimpanzees seeing people smoke and then copying it,” says the Thai researcher.

Zhang, director of the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, attributes this year’s record high births not to any single breakthrough but to an accumulation of research on panda biology, nutrition and genetics while “trying to imitate nature better.”

The result, by his count: In the first 10 months of this year 31 cubs were born in captivity in China, of which 28 survived. That’s up from 12 births in 2005 and just nine in 2000. Of this year’s births, 14 came through natural breeding, while artificial insemination or a combination of the two produced the rest.

No cubs were born among the roughly 20 pandas outside China, but sperm from Atlanta Zoo’s Yang Yang yielded an offspring for Lun Lun in Chengdu, China, Zhang told a conference here of 140 panda experts.

JoGayle Howard, an animal reproduction specialist at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., said the goal of raising the captive breeding population to 300 from the current 220 is rapidly being reached. This would prevent inbreeding, widen the genetic pool and enable more captive animals to re-enter the wild, where the panda population is estimated at 1,600 to 3,000.

Howard said the biggest challenges in panda breeding are an extremely high rate of incompatibility and the very narrow window of opportunity — females are ready to mate for as few as 48 hours a year.

“At first people thought that you just put two animals together and they would figure it out. But it didn’t turn out that way,” she said. “Now we know how to take care of the panda better. We’ve really made progress. But we’re still learning a lot of even basic things.”

Captive animals used to lack proper socialization; with no companions around, when the male and female met for breeding “they just freaked out and fought,” Howard said. Now enclosures are bigger and contain more animals.

There’s also a push to keep cubs with their mothers longer, for up to two years, to give them more natural sex education.

Scientists have also learned more about sex and aggression. In the wild, Howard explains, females in heat will climb a tree while suitors below fight for her. In captivity, with no male rivals around, pandas often take out their aggression on the female.

Adds Zhang: “In the wild they have their own choices when mating. But when we breed them in captivity it’s like taking two human beings and forcing them to mate.”

But despite the advances, there are still only about 15 captive male adults which breed naturally. Second best is artificial insemination, and after years of study frozen semen can now be shipped around the world and applied according to a comprehensive genetic database.

Prasertsak is prepared to use both methods as he readies his couple for mating at Chiang Mai Zoo, which has rented the animals from China for research and tourism purposes.

The pressure is on. Last year Lin Hui showed promising symptoms but they turned out to be a pseudo-pregnancy, not unusual among pandas.

Will the blue movies help?

Opinions differ on the visuals, but Zhang and Prasertsak agree on the sound track.

“It’s the sounds of breeding that stimulate them,” Zhang said. “Pandas are just like human beings. They understand everything.”

Source: Associated Press - 23 November 2006

[PeaceBlondie]

Maybe the female panda could watch the sex VCD's as well, so she knows what her partner is about to do.

Maybe she could also watch an experienced mother panda properly taking care of an infant baby.

...I can see it now, on the streets of Patpong, the vendors hawking their wares: "Panda sex VCD's, Panda sex VCD's...."

[Jai Dee]

Update: Thai Zoo Turns to Artificial Insemination as Panda Porn Fails

March 26: Chuang Chuang checks out a video of his fellow pandas mating at the Chiang Mai zoo in Thailand.

After panda porn failed to spark amour, Thai zoo authorities turned Monday to artificial insemination in the hope of impregnating their lone female giant panda.

Authorities at the Chiang Mai Zoo in northern Thailand inseminated Lin Hui with semen from her cage-mate, Chuang Chuang, on Monday morning and will repeat the procedure on Tuesday.

The artificial insemination is a last-ditch effort to get Lin Hui pregnant, after videos of pandas having sex failed to entice Chuang Chuang into mating with his partner.

"He just didn't want to mate. He was looking at her as a friend," said Sophon Dummui, director general of Thai Zoo Organization of Thailand which oversees the Chiang Mai Zoo.

"We saw that Chuang Chuang wasn't mating with the female," he continued. "If we don't do artificial insemination, then maybe we couldn't have a baby this year. We think the artificial insemination is the best option."

Thailand rented 6-year-old Chuang Chuang and 5-year-old Lin Hui from China for $250,000 in October 2003 for 10 years. They are expected to generate millions of dollars in tourist revenue.

Since then, they have tried everything from putting Chuang Chuang on a special diet to holding a mock wedding before resorting to artificial insemination.

While the technique is being tried on pandas for the first time in Thailand, it has been used for more than 50 years in China to trigger a baby boom among the bear-like bamboo eaters.

Thirty-four pandas were born by artificial insemination in 2006 in China and 30 survived — both record numbers for the endangered species.

Artificial insemination has also been used at zoos in the United States.

The panda is one of the world's rarest animals, with about 1,590 living in the wild in China, mostly in Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces.

Giant pandas have a very low fertility rate because they are sexually inactive. Female pandas become pregnant only once a year and deliver two cubs at most each time.

The fertility of captive giant pandas is even lower, experts said.

Source: FoxNews - 4 April 2007

[Boksida]

They need On the Job Training. Blinky Bill is a very large koala which should be somewhat similar. If they threw him in the cage he'd give Mr. Panda a tip or two.

[Crow Boy]

I haven't been there for two years, but I suspect they need a bit of privacy . It was a three ring circus when we visitted, the poor panda's ears were assaulted by people oohing and ahhing when the poor buggers moved. Imagine the effect that would have on your libido

I dunno, its never bothered me

CB

Edited April 5, 2007 by Crow Boy

[Crow Boy]

Thai zoo finds gold in giant pandas' dung

Do the tourists buying these paper know it's source?

Tourists have been buying elephant paper for years which uses the same style of natural resource.

CB

[Donnyboy]

Panda "Porn" to Boost Mating Efforts at Thai Zoo

Sometimes married couples just need to add a little spice to their love lives.

Source: National Geographic News

suggested material..........

[Donnyboy]

Thai zoo finds gold in giant pandas' dung

Do the tourists buying these paper know it's source?

Tourists have been buying elephant paper for years which uses the same style of natural resource.

CB

and one wonders what you are drinking when having a "Chang Beer"

[Crow Boy]

Thai zoo finds gold in giant pandas' dung

Do the tourists buying these paper know it's source?

Tourists have been buying elephant paper for years which uses the same style of natural resource.

CB

and one wonders what you are drinking when having a "Chang Beer"

Not after the first mouthful

CB