‘Bad news’ feared for giant panda Tian Tian’s pregnancy

EDINBURGH — Edinburgh Zoo has raised concerns that female giant panda, Tian Tian, may have suffered a miscarriage again.

Artificially inseminated in April, Tian Tian has passed its due date and “the evidence suggests that this may be bad news”, Director of Giant Pandas for the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) Iain Valentine said in a statement yesterday (Sept 1) on the zoo’s website. RZSS runs Edinburgh Zoo.

“She is still displaying some of the behaviours of a pregnant panda, but the scientific data from the urine analysis of her hormones is becoming more atypical. There is still a chance she will give birth to a live cub as her progesterone levels have not yet returned to base,” he said.

Stressing that Tian Tian’s pregnancy was “definitely not a pseudo or phantom pregnancy”, he noted that “results of cutting edge scientific analysis” showed the UK’s only female giant panda “had the profile of a pregnant panda likely to carry to full term”.

“However, at the very end of last week there were one or two results from the hormone tests that were atypical and that was the first sign something might be amiss. Although it is still very new, the scientific data does suggest that the last point she should have gone into labour was over the weekend, unfortunately this did not happen,” said Mr Valentine.

RZSS experts will continue to monitor Tian Tian closely.

Last month, The Telegraph reported that Tian Tian could miscarry after a request to stop pilots flying low over its enclosure at Edinburgh Zoo was turned down.

Panda expert Jeroen Jacobs told The Telegraph that the noise from low-flying aircraft could create stress for Tian Tian — which could cause her to miscarry again. The panda had miscarried her cub at late term last year.

Edinburgh Zoo has two giant pandas, Tian Tian and Yang Guang. They are the only two giant pandas in the UK.

Watch the giant pandas at Edinburgh Zoo:

Video: Youtube/Edinburgh Zoo