Much-loved pandas will return to China following 12-year stint at Edinburgh Zoo trends now
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Scotland's two pandas will be returned to China this year having failed to produce offspring in the past 12 years because they 'just don't get on'.
The two giant pandas, named Tian Tian (which translates as Sweetie) and Yang Guang (Sunshine), arrived at Edinburgh Zoo in December 2011.
Huge crowds rushed to the zoo when the pair first arrived on a 10-year lease -extended due to Covid - after years of negotiation between Scotland and China.
Numerous attempts were made to encourage the pair to breed – with keepers even resorting to artificial insemination – since 2013.
However Yang Guang was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2018 and was later castrated.
The two pandas are likely to be split when they return to china, but one expert thinks they won't mind at all.
The two giant pandas, named Tian Tian (which translates as Sweetie) and Yang Guang (Sunshine), arrived at Edinburgh Zoo in December 2011 but will be returning to China this year
Alison MacLean, giant panda team leader at Edinburgh Zoo, said they are likely to be split up in China
Edinburgh Zoo shells out £640,000 a year just to rent the pandas from the Bifengxia
