'Olympic souvenirs out of Panda poop'

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Beijing, July 31: A Chinese wildlife research centre has come up with a novel idea to profit from panda poop ,make Olympic souvenirs out of it.

Researchers at the centre in Chengdu, capital of mountainous Sichuan province, had sculpted photo frames, bookmarks, fans and panda statues out of the 300 tonnes of the stuff produced by 60 giant pandas each year, state media said today.

Jing Shimin, assistant to the director of the base, proudly declared that the souvenirs would be relatively odour-free.

''They don't smell too bad because 70 per cent of the dung is just remains of the bamboo that the pandas are unable to digest,'' he told Xinhua news agency.

''We used to spend at least 770 dollars a month to get rid of the droppings, but now they can prove lucrative as half of them will be sold as souvenirs.'' Not wishing to miss out on Olympic-inspired profits, the base is currently working on moulding the poop into statues of athletic pandas performing various Olympic sports to sell as 2008 Olympic Games souvenirs.

A Thai zoo already sells multicoloured paper made from the excrement of its two resident pandas.

Reuters>