There were a few tears earlier this year when four-year-old panda cub Lin Ping left the Chiang Mai zoo for China on September 28 to find a mate. She of course, is the only panda ever born in Thailand. Now people are smiling again. Lin Hui, Lin Ping's mother, is pregnant. Her baby is 91 days old and could be born any minute now – although sometime in January is most likely.
"The delivery of a panda could be anytime. We have to watch her 24 hours a day ," Baripat Siriarunrat, the chief researcher of the panda project, said. Once again the pregnancy is the result of artificial insemination, carried out the same day that Ling Ping left. There is one possible problem, however. Lin Ping is expected to return to Thailand in May with her mate. If that happens, the Chiang Mai zoo will have five pandas: Lin Ping, her mate, her parents and the new baby panda. But China only allows Thailand to have four. Will one of them have to leave?