This bear's booked up

Anyone desperate to get a glimpse of Chiang Mai Zoo's panda cub will have to wait in line -- for the rest of the year.

"The 65,000 advanced tickets for this year to see the panda in its snow dome have already been snapped up," said Pradit Pankaew, an official at Chiang Mai Zoo. "The queues last until January next year."

Visitors sometimes book beforehand to visit the koalas and the aquarium, but never on this scale, Pradit added. Panda fever has also reached Chiang Mai Airport, where posters of the cub are luring tourists to the zoo.

People across the country have been busy thinking up names for the new arrival. Tai Tai, Lin Lin, Ching Ching and Tai Na are popular suggestions, while others prefer Lanna-dialect names such as Uang Phueng, Uang Luang and Uang Doi.

Sneaky healthy check

Chinese veterinarians and panda expert Wei Ming managed to separate the cub from mother Lin Hui for a 15-minute health check-up yesterday. After Lin Hui got wise to their trick of offering a bamboo snack to get her to let go of her cub, the staff shifted to bread, which distracted her long enough for them to snatch the tiny panda.

Veterinarian Kannikar Nimtrakul said that the fast-growing cub's weight had increased by 105 grams in two days to 500 grams. It is now 22cm-long and getting black fur around its ears and front and back legs. Kannikar confirmed that Lin Hui is producing enough good-quality milk for her offspring.

Prasertsak Boontrakulpoonthawee, chief of the zoo's panda research project, said thousands of names had been submitted to the cub-naming contest ahead of the deadline for suggestions on Friday. They would be narrowed down to four, he said, then the public can vote for their favourite name using specially made postcards, with some of the proceeds going to the Panda Fund. The winning name will be announced on August 12, said Prasertsak.