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Panda mating season begins at Edinburgh Zoo

Edinburgh Zoo male Panda Yang Guang eats bamboo ahead of the breeding season. Picture by David Cheskin, Press Association 
Edinburgh Zoo male Panda Yang Guang eats bamboo ahead of the breeding season. Picture by David Cheskin, Press Association  Edinburgh Zoo male Panda Yang Guang eats bamboo ahead of the breeding season. Picture by David Cheskin, Press Association 

ZOO keepers have begun daily monitoring of Scotland's giant panda couple as the 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 although 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.

Iain Valentine from the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland said: "Tian Tian and Yang Guang are both in great health and condition and things are progressing nicely.

"The giant pandas are clearly showing an increased interest in one another, both pandas are fairly regularly scent marking now and we've also seen food intake increase in both pandas as they seek to drive their body weight up - all fantastic instinctive pre-breeding behaviours."

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 remain at Edinburgh Zoo for a decade.