Edinburgh Zoo’s Yang Guang ‘sexually frustrated’

EDINBURGH Zoo’s male panda has been driven wild by sexual frustration, keepers have told visitors.

Yang Guang, the male panda at Edinburgh Zoo, has been filmed displaying signs of sexual frustration. Picture: Gareth Easton

Video shows a frantic Yang Guang doing forward rolls, pacing his enclosure, and chewing the padded cable of his swing.

Tian Tian, meanwhile, has been photographed sitting in her enclosure next door munching bamboo and in a state of Zen-like calm .

Keepers say Yang Guang has sky-high testosterone levels - set to last for three months - and and is desperate to mate.

But Tian Tian is only fertile for 24 - 36 hours and is unlikely to be in a frisky mood for at least another month.

The male panda’s apparent eagerness to get on with mating could be a promising sign that the pair will this year finally deliver a cub after three years of disappointment.

Panda enthusiast Rachel Rose, 40, from Solihull, West Midlands, took the video a few days ago.

Ms Rose said: “The keepers did say that this behaviour was unusual, and you wouldn’t normally see them this frustrated.

“We saw both of the pandas and Tian Tian was just sat quietly eating.

“We then came to Yang Guang and he was displaying this really odd behaviour, which lasted about ten minutes.”

Ms Rose, who is saving up to visit China to see pandas, added: “The panda keepers explained to us that his testosterone levels were so high because Tian Tian isn’t ready to mate yet.

“It could be months before she is interested and poor Yang Guang is just going to have to wait.”

Ms Rose made a video of her visit – soundtracked by Mousse T’s raunchy ‘90s hit “Horny” – that includes captions such as “Tian Tian has a headache”.

The pandas are currently on a 10-year loan from China, at a cost of £600,000 a year.

There have been several failed mating attempts over the past three years, much to the disappointment of keepers.

Last year, panda expert Gareth Starbuck suggested that the Edinburgh Zoo enclosure was unsuitable for breeding.

The animal breeding expert from Nottingham Trent University said: ““It strikes me that the best way to get an animal to behave in a successful manner is to recreate their natural environment as best as possible.

“The panda enclosure in Edinburgh is sparse, has a lot of concrete, one token tree and not much cover. In the wild they have plenty of cover.”

Dr Starbuck also said the fact the male and female pandas could see each other from their separate glass-fronted enclosures was a problem.

He said: “We put them next to each other and expect them to mate naturally when in the wild they are miles apart and only come into contact when she is ready to mate.

“Why is she going to be interested in the boy next door?”

He said the zoo “knows that the enclosure could be better” but added: “Short of building a new enclosure there’s not really much they can do.”

In 2014 there was great speculation that Tian Tian was pregnant. However, it is believed a “late reabsorption of the foetus” may have taken place.