EDINBURGH Zoo panda Tian Tian has been artificially inseminated after coming into season at the earliest time since arriving in Scotland.

As a result, zoo chiefs are now more confident than ever the giant panda will produce a cub the UKs first this summer.

The decision to go ahead with artificial insemination came after the zoo decided there was now no prospect of Tian Tian and Yang Guang ever mating naturally.

Panda experts at Edinburgh Zoo carried out the procedure in December after hormone monitoring revealed Tian Tian hit peak levels. It is the fifth time Tian Tian has been artificially inseminated.

Iain Valentine, director of giant pandas for the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, said it was important biologically for Tian Tian to breed and reproduce. Writing in his most recent blog last month, he revealed: We began hormone monitoring in December last year and as of 17/18 March Tian Tian hit peak oestrus, the earliest this has happened over the past six years and fully a month and a half earlier than last year.

As in previous years, behavioural observations made by our Chinese partners suggested that natural mating was not going to be possible, so artificial insemination was carried out using Yang Guangs sperm later on that weekend.

Tian Tian was given access outdoors a day after the AI procedure and both pandas are doing well, with Tian Tian splitting her time between her new nesting box and the wider enclosure over the past few weeks.

Whilst it is too early to say anything specific about breeding success and we will be careful in only updating you when we have concrete news we continue to believe it is important biologically for Tian Tian, a female in her prime, to breed and reproduce and add to a vital ex situ population outside of China.

He said the panda enclosure was reopened so visitors could view the pair.

The China Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Panda (CCRCGP), Leibnitz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) and Roslin Embryology are believed to have assisted zoo staff during the procedure.

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Hopes are high Edinburgh Zoo panda Tian Tian will produce a cub after fifth conception attempt - Herald Scotland