Thai's paint crocodiles to look like pandas

For aquarium worker Kamla Maneegan, painting baby crocodiles to look like crowd-pleasing giant pandas is more than just a job - it's a point of national pride. Ever since a pair of pandas on loan from China gave birth to a cub in May, Thailand has gone ga-ga for the black-and-white bears.

One television network broadcasts 24-hour coverage of the cub, Lin Ping, on its "Panda Channel" as she chows down on bamboo shoots, plays with tires and nuzzles her mother. Street vendors and fashion designers have incorporated panda motifs into their work, and the country's top zoologist has taken to wearing a panda costume for TV interviews. Panda fever appeared to reach a fresh peak in October, when two armed men held up a gas station in Bangkok and made off with two stuffed pandas - leaving the cash register untouched.

It's all too much for some Thais, though. They worry that amid all this pandemonium Thailand is forgetting its own endangered species, especially the elephant and the crocodile. Their response: If you can't beat the panda-huggers, join them, preferably with the help of a couple of jars of black and white paint.



At several sites across the country, commercial aquariums and animal parks are painting their animals in panda colours to keep up visitor numbers in the face of tougher competition - as well as educate people about the threats elephants and crocodiles face in the wild. Mr. Kamla, a 25-year-old crocodile-handler, fielded a barrage of questions from schoolchildren recently at Buengchawark Underwater Sea Paradise as he and a colleague painted a three-month-old Siamese crocodile in panda colours. "They're an endangered species, too, like the panda, so we hope some of our knowledge will trickle down," Mr. Kamla says.

Prasit Vejprasit, an administrator at the aquarium, says busloads of schoolchildren - the mainstay of the aquarium's business - continue coming to the site, a couple of hours' travel northwest of Bangkok, encouraged in large part by the panda-colored crocs. He says teachers often call to confirm the aquarium is still painting crocodiles before sending their classes.

Applying the panda makeover can be tricky. Juvenile crocs wriggle around making little chirping noises, and some visitors question whether a fresh lick of paint harms the animals. (The aquarium says it uses thinned-down watercolours, which wash off quickly.) Mr. Prasit says painting adult crocodiles can be dangerous. "It takes about three people to hold them down, and once it's done the paint comes off as soon as they slip into the water," he says. In many ways, he says, "it's a waste of time."

With news video.