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The cost of Lin Ping’s new loan agreement, about 660 million baht, is not much if people take into account the annual revenue that the celebrity giant panda and its family have been generating, the president of the South East Asian Zoos Association said on Wednesday. Sophon Dumnui, former director of the Zoological Park Organisation, said the pandas have been generating about three billion baht of annual income for Chiang Mai province. The Zoological Park Organisation’s share of the revenue can be distributed to help other animal species nationwide, Mr Sophon said. Lin Ping was born in Thailand, but her parents were loaned from China on a 10-year contract in 2003. Lin Ping was due to be sent back to China after her fourth birthday on May 27, but the government asked for the new loan agreement with China to allow her to remain in Thailand for longer. Friends of the Asian Elephant foundation founder Soraida Salwala has criticised the loan agreement, arguing that the money could be better spent saving Thailand’s elephants. But Mr Sophon insisted that the government does not neglect local elephants. He said a 500 million baht budget to aid elephants at various levels was approved at a cabinet meeting in Surin province on July 31, 2012. Lin Ping’s parents, Chuang Chuang and Lin Hui, have played an important role in a previous fundraiser projects for elephants, cranes, and many exotic animals, he added. via Former zoo chief says pandas generate huge revenue | Bangkok Post: breakingnews.

BANGKOK — After nearly three years of 24/7 telecasts of the everyday lives of a giant panda family, Thais will have to leave their sofas and remote controls and pay a visit to a zoo if they want to see their beloved creatures. True Vision, a local cable network, pulled the plug on the reality show Monday due to apparent declining interest in watching the pandas, who have been housed at a zoo in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, since 2003. Interest in their lethargic lives – which revolve around eating bamboo shoots and sleeping – hit a fever pitch in May 2009 when artificial insemination succeeded and father Chuang Chuang and mother Lin Hui produced a cub, named Lin Ping. Six months later, True Vision dedicated a live feed from the panda enclosure in what was a new frontier in Thailand’s growing appetite for reality TV. Many Thais tuned in initially to what was dubbed the “Panda Channel”, and some never seemed to tire of watching the cub claw around, chew bamboo shoots and doze, perchance dreaming of more shoots. Southeast Asia Real Time has more. http://blogs.wsj.com/scene/2012/10/02/thailand-says-goodbye-to-panda-tv/