It's taken almost 12 years, but finally Edinburgh's Giant Panda have successfully reproduced. This is a long awaited UK first breeding.
The twins were born a week ago and are being handreared around the clock by dedicated keepers after Tian-Tian failed to produce enough milk for them. It is believed that she conceived on the final AI attempt in 2021 and then had delayed implantation, which is quite common in Bears but has never been recorded in a Giant Panda for this long:
RZSS director David Field said on the announcement of the news today
We are absolutely over the moon to announce the safe arrival of Tian-Tian's cubs. These are the first ever Giant Panda's to be born in Scotland, and the UK. We had no idea that she was pregnant. Keepers arrived at work on 23rd March and found her cradling the cubs in a nest. Unfortunately despite showing excellent maternal skills, Tian-Tian was not able to produce milk to feed the cubs so we are handrearing them to ensure they survive. We last Artificially Inseminated her in 2021 and believed that it had not been successful. Clearly it had been! Bears can sometimes have delayed implantation which is what we believe happened in this case. Obviously this does impact our plans to return our Giant Panda's to China later this year. We will liaise with our colleagues in China to organise a new date once the cubs are weaned and ready to travel. In the meantime we look forward to sharing the cubs developments with our visitors.
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The twins were born a week ago and are being handreared around the clock by dedicated keepers after Tian-Tian failed to produce enough milk for them. It is believed that she conceived on the final AI attempt in 2021 and then had delayed implantation, which is quite common in Bears but has never been recorded in a Giant Panda for this long:
RZSS director David Field said on the announcement of the news today
We are absolutely over the moon to announce the safe arrival of Tian-Tian's cubs. These are the first ever Giant Panda's to be born in Scotland, and the UK. We had no idea that she was pregnant. Keepers arrived at work on 23rd March and found her cradling the cubs in a nest. Unfortunately despite showing excellent maternal skills, Tian-Tian was not able to produce milk to feed the cubs so we are handrearing them to ensure they survive. We last Artificially Inseminated her in 2021 and believed that it had not been successful. Clearly it had been! Bears can sometimes have delayed implantation which is what we believe happened in this case. Obviously this does impact our plans to return our Giant Panda's to China later this year. We will liaise with our colleagues in China to organise a new date once the cubs are weaned and ready to travel. In the meantime we look forward to sharing the cubs developments with our visitors.
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