Baby panda celebrates 1-month birthday in Thailand

At Chiang Mai Zoo a baby panda sports its white and black outfit. This is Thailand’s first baby panda and already the rare bear is a celebrity.

Over the Fourth of July weekend, Chiang Mai hosted “Welcome Baby Panda” parades. According to People Pets the zoo is hoping that the new addition will be the impetus for a new wave of tourism in its region. “The baby panda is our marketing tool to bring people back to Chiang Mai,” Kanog Suvannavisutr, president of the Thai Hotels Association Northern Chapter, told The Nation.

With the birth, Thailand became only the third nation (after Japan and the U.S.) to successfully breed a panda outside China. This achievement has the Southeast Asian country ecstatic.

“It is an ultimate happiness to see the baby panda,” zoo director Thananpat Pongamorn told the AP. “Every staff at the zoo is proud, and I think every Thai will be proud too.”

Check out the Telegraph’s online photo gallery of the panda.

—Jillian Wolande