Zoo's female panda shows early signs of pregnancy

Edinburgh Zoo's female giant panda, Tian Tian, could be expecting a cub after she was artificially inseminated in April of this year.

After Tian Tian and her mate Yang Guang failed to mate naturally during the 36-hour breeding window in April, the female panda was artificially inseminated in the early hours of April 21.

Since then, she has been carefully monitored and is showing signs of nesting behaviour. In addition, a second rise in progesterone levels was detected in Tian Tian on July 15 and confirmed on August 7.

The results indicate that the panda may be pregnant or experiencing a pseudo pregnancy. Experts have stressed that pandas who are experiencing a false pregnancy will still display nesting behaviour.

“We cannot tell definitively at this stage if Tian Tian is pregnant or not, although we’re seeing results that give us cause for encouragement," says Iain Valentine, director of giant pandas at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), which owns and manages Edinburgh zoo.

RZSS are also employing cutting edge protein analysis methods, which were pioneered by Memphis Zoo. The technique has also been used at Washington Zoo and further refined by Edinburgh.

Since it has only been used on a few pandas throughout the world, the results cannot be classed as definitive, but the technique does appear to suggest the profile of a pregnant panda that will carry to full term.

Each week, urine samples are transported for special testing to Dr Martin Dehnhard at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) in Berlin.

According to RZSS, further hormone testing results will be available by mid-August which could shed some light on whether Tian Tian is actually expecting. If she is pregnant, her cub will be born in around 40 to 55 days - between late August and early September.

Image courtesy of RZSS