Tian Tian the giant panda at Edinburgh zoo. She is believed to be pregnant after artificial insemination. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images
Following a sustained frenzy of pregnancy speculation on a scale that perhaps only the Duchess of Cambridge can relate to, Scotland's celebrated female giant panda, Tian Tian, is likely to give birth at the end of this month, Edinburgh zoo has announced.
The 10-year-old panda underwent artificial insemination in April after she and her male counterpart loaned to the zoo from China, Yang Guang, stubbornly declined to proceed as nature intended.
Iain Valentine, the grandly titled director of giant pandas for the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, said: "The latest scientific data suggests Tian Tian the giant panda is now pregnant and that implantation has taken place, therefore she may give birth at the end of the month. This is all very new and complex science and we still have a bit of time to go yet, as like last year, the late loss of a cub remains entirely possible."
The artificial insemination took place on 13 April, he said, but it was still not certain Tian Tian was pregnant. "Our team of internal and external experts have continued to analyse specific hormone and protein levels on a daily basis in Tian Tian's urine. In simplistic terms, when this information is studied retrospectively this allows us to predict if she is pregnant, if she is likely to carry to full term and when she is likely to give birth.
"It is very likely that we will not know 100% if Tian Tian is pregnant until she gives birth, however very new scientific tests will give us a strong indication. They are just too new to be definitive.
"Monitoring a female giant panda's behaviour – for example if she is sleeping a lot, eating more or spending time in her cubbing den – is not an indicator of if she is pregnant or otherwise, as giant pandas experience pseudo pregnancies and she will show pregnant-type behaviour whether she is pregnant or not."
Two Chinese panda experts were due to visit Edinburgh later this month to assist the zoo, he said.
Tian Tian became pregnant last year via artificial insemination, but the pregnancy failed late in the term, something common for giant pandas both in zoos and in the wild.
Tian Tian and Yang Guang are the first giant pandas to live in the UK for 17 years. They arrived on loan from China in December 2011 and will remain at Edinburgh zoo for a decade. Their presence prompted the now popular taunt among Scottish independence supporters that there are currently more giant pandas in Scotland than Conservative MPs.
Giant pandas, most common in the bamboo forests of a few states in central and southern China, most notably Sichuan, are famously reluctant to mate, both in the wild and in captivity, and even if they do subsequent pregnancies often fail. The species is extremely rare, mainly as a result of habitat loss, but numbers have been boosted by the success of captive breeding programmes at China's pre-eminent giant panda research centre in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan.
