Season for pandas

ZOO KEEPERS have begun a daily monitoring of Scotland’s giant panda couple as mating season approaches.

Edinburgh Zoo hopes Tian Tian and Yang Guang will produce a cub this year as the creatures start to show the tell-tale signs they are ready to breed.

There was disappointment last year when the pair did not mate, and though Tian Tian was artificially inseminated she lost her foetus at late term. Panda reproduction is a notoriously tricky process, with females only ovulating once a year.

Tian Tian (Sweetie) and Yang Guang (Sunshine) are the first giant pandas to live in the UK for 17 years.

They arrived on loan from China in December 2011 and will stay at Edinburgh Zoo for a decade.

The panda gestation period is typically five months.

Picture: PA. Emma Watson.