Edinburgh Panda ‘grumpy’ – that may spell romance

Keepers at Edinburgh Zoo have been encouraged to see their resident pandas showing signs that they are ready to mate.

If predictions prove to be correct, Tian Tian could come into season within two weeks.

Experts say that her grumpy behaviour over the past couple of days is a positive sign that “things are about to start to happen”.

Iain Valentine, director of giant pandas for the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, said: “She’s become grumpier, has gone off her food and has become a bit temperamental – basically, a different panda to how she normally is.”

Staff at the zoo are monitoring her closely by carrying out hormone analysis and behavioural observation to try to ascertain when she will come into season – which only lasts for 36 hours.

“Tian Tian has also shown hormone fluctuations a couple of times that suggested we were about to see a hormonal cross-over that then tells us the 36-hour breeding window is ten to 14 days away,” said Mr Valentine.

Confirmation of this will be revealed in test results gathered from samples of Tian Tian’s urine, which is collected twice a day and analysed by the Centre for Integrative Physiology at Edinburgh University and then Chester Zoo.

Yang Guang is also showing signs that he is ready to breed.

“So far we’ve been encouraged by both pandas starting to show breeding behaviours much earlier when compared to 2012,” said Mr Valentine.