Edinburgh zoo said it was “bad news” for the UK’s only female giant panda last night as experts raised fears that she may have miscarried.
Tian Tian should have gone into labour over the weekend but hormone analysis found “atypical” results suggesting “something might be amiss” with her pregnancy.
Iain Valentine, director of giant pandas for the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, said: “As you are all probably aware, giant panda Tian Tian is now past her due date and the evidence suggests that this may be bad news.
“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.”
However, zoologists have said there is still hope for a normal birth as the giant panda’s progesterone levels suggest that her hormones have not yet settled.
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Referring to Ai Hin, a six-year-old panda at a Chinese zoo which is recently thought to have faked a pregnancy for extra food and a private room, Mr Valentine added: “I must stress, as there has been a lot in the news recently about pandas ‘faking’ it, that this was definitely not a pseudo or phantom pregnancy.
“The results of cutting edge scientific analysis have shown that, across the entire pregnancy, Tian Tian had the profile of a pregnant panda likely to carry to full term. We are working with the of the very best panda experts in the world and they were all in agreement.”
Last night zoo sources said that they will not be certain whether Tian Tian has lost her cub until the end of the week, but “everyone is crossing their fingers that she is still pregnant”.
Experts from the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland will monitor Tian Tian closely over the next few days and the panda enclosure will be closed to the public during this uncertain time.
Tian Tian arrived at Edinburgh Zoo from on China in December 2011 with her partner Yang Guang and will remain here until 2021. The giant pandas, whose names mean “Sweetie” and “Sunshine” respectively, are the first to live in the UK for 17 years.
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Having failed to conceive naturally in 2012, Tian Tian was artificially inseminated last year but did not give birth having re-absorbed the foetus in the late term.
The ten-year-old panda finally became pregnant after being artificially inseminated for a second time this April, but the zoo delayed announcing her condition to avoid the previous disappointment.
Concerned that she may again fail to reach her full term, a “no-fly zone” was put in place over Edinburgh zoo throughout July. The Notice to Airmen, published by the Civil Aviation Authority asked pilots not to fly in the area if possible to reduce noise from low-flying planes and helicopters.
Last month, Ai Hin, the female panda living in a Chinese research centre was thought to have faked pregnancy symptoms so she could take advantage of extra buns to eat.
She had shown signs of pregnancy at the Chengdu breeding centre, in China’s southwestern province of Sichuan, which commonly moves pandas which are thought to be pregnant into single rooms with air conditioning and around-the-clock care.
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Wu Kongju, an expert at the centre, said: “They also receive more buns, fruits and bamboo, so some clever pandas have used this to their advantage to improve their quality of life.”
Pandas can only conceive for around 36 hours every year, making natural conceptions extremely rare.
Yesterday Edinburgh based animal protection charity OneKind called on the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, which owns the zoo, to abandon attempts to produce a panda cub through artificial insemination.
The charity said it was sorry to hear the news about the pregnancy but that now is the time to “leave the animals in peace”.
OneKind Policy Director Libby Anderson said: “Unlike a human mother who makes the choice to undergo artificial insemination, Tian Tian has no say in whether she has these procedures.
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“OneKind has always believed that it is misguided to attempt to breed more captive pandas when they will never return to the wild or improve protection for the wild population in their native habitat.”