Birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it, but a male panda needs intensive training to fall in love.
Since Yang Guang and his female companion Tian Tian arrived before Christmas, they have amply fulfilled Edinburgh Zoo’s hopes that they would attract more visitors. But the zoo knows that the patter of tiny panda paws would turn the rush into a stampede. Yang Guang and Tian Tian were brought from China as a breeding pair — and the spring mating season is almost here.
Timing is everything. Tian Tian will be fertile in a matter of days for only 72 hours, so it is essential that Yang Guang is fully fit for the long weekend of opportunity. The trouble is that the sedentary zoo-dwelling male panda tends to be weaker than his wild counterpart in the necessary department — the back legs. Yang Guang’s keepers have been working to get him into condition. Wild pandas roam and climb endlessly in search of bamboo, creating lithe, muscle-toned bodies.
“Training of the male panda means he is having strength put into his back legs,” said Iain Valentine, the zoo’s Director of Animal Conservation and Research. “Obviously he will be mounting her, and he has to be in good physical condition.”
Throughout the day, the keepers get him to stand for food. He has piled on muscle, doubling his daily bamboo intake to 64kg. In the breeding season, males abandon their habitual silence and decorum, calling loudly across the forest and marking their territories with urine.
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Yang Guang has prowled his paddock for this purpose, doing handstands to spray higher, to the amusement of visitors.
The pandas cost the zoo £363,000 a year for the lease from China and £70,000 for bamboo. Given the earning potential of the first panda cub born in the UK, the zoo must hope Yang Guang’s legs can stand the strain.