Scottish diet in prospect for pandas

A SCOTTISH estate has come to the rescue of Edinburgh Zoo over the problem of how to feed two prize pandas due to arrive from China later this year.

Kelburn Estate and Country Centre in Ayrshire, one of only a handful of locations in Scotland that grows bamboo in quantity, has offered the zoo unlimited access to its crop.

Tian Tian and Yuang Guang, a breeding pair born in 2003, will be the first pandas to be housed in a Scottish zoo and the first in the UK in 17 years.

A giant panda can eat up to 38kg (84lb) of bamboo a day.

Patrick Boyle, the 10th Earl of Glasgow, whose family has owned Kelburn since the 13th century, said: "When we heard, we immediately got in touch (with the zoo] as we have plenty (of bamboo] to spare. It was brought to the estate by my great grandfather, the 7th earl, who was the governor of New Zealand between 1892 and 1897, and (it] continues to thrive here."