~*~ Thailand 4-ever! ~*~

Chinese officials have arrived in Japan to investigate the death
of a giant panda which was on loan to a zoo. Fourteen-year-old
Kou Kou died last week. Chinese media report that he had been
given an anaesthetic while vets tried to extract semen to help him
breed with his partner. The investigators will try to find out whether
Kou Kou died of an overdose of sedatives and, according to reports,
could seek $500,000 compensation. But it is not yet clear whether the
Chinese authorities will press Japan for payment. Until now, the two
countries have both benefited from the loan of pandas. Oji Zoo had
signed a five-year extension to keep Kou Kou in Kobe and continue
its research on breeding. Last July, Ueno Zoo in Tokyo came to an
agreement to receive a pair of pandas from China in a deal worth
almost $1m a year for the next decade.

Giant pandas are a highly endangered species, with only 1,600
remaining in the wild and fewer than 300 others in captive breeding
programmes.

Five pandas have died in captivity this year, reports say.

*Story from BBC..