Pitter-patter of tiny panda paws? Tian Tian believed to be ‘pregnant’

Tian Tian, the UK’s only female giant panda, is believed to be pregnant, Edinburgh Zoo has said.

The surprise announcement follows the release of emails suggesting a cub could be born as early as Friday.

Emails between the zoo and the Scottish government from late July discuss Tian Tian’s pregnancy, and have now been released under the Freedom of Information Act.

However, the zoo says the exact date is hard to predict.

"Tian Tian is being closely monitored by our expert team and we will be the first to share any news as soon as we can," a spokeswoman for Royal Zoological Society of Scotland Edinburgh Zoo said.

It follows repeated attempts over several years to see if the female giant panda could produce a cub.

An email sent on 25 July from the zoo to the Scottish government said: "TT doing real well. As things are at the moment, she seems on track but I have shifted possible birth date to around 25 August. Will be able to be a bit more precise in a week’s time.

"So she is about 30 days out now and pregnancy proper has now begun in what we think is a 37-day pregnancy."

Panda reproduction is far from black and white, with females only ovulating once each year.

This was the fifth time Tian Tian had been artificially inseminated after the zoo’s male panda Yang Guang failed to take to natural mating.

Tian Tian, which means sweetie, and Yang Guang, which means sunshine, are the only two giant pandas living in the UK.

The pair arrived on loan from China in December 2011 for a period of 10 years.

In 2012, the pandas were brought together for the first time in a "love tunnel" when Tian Tian was ready to reproduce.

Although "sparks flew" between the two, they failed to mate.

Baby pandas weigh about 150g at birth, about the same as an apple.

They are about one thousandth of their mother’s weight when they are born, and their black patches don’t start to appear until they are about one week old.

The cub would return to China when they turn two years old – mimicking natural dispersal age in the wild.

It can be very difficult to determine whether a panda is pregnant because their fetuses are tiny and hard to detect.

Pandas are also known to experience "pseudo-pregnancies" where their behaviour and hormonal changes indicate they are pregnant even when they are not.

Sky’s James Matthews says: "The same people involved and the same sources in this particular story, are the same people who have been involved with fairly concrete guarantees in the past and nothing has happened.

"So to sum up, she is believed to be pregnant, but don’t raise your expectations too far."

(c) Sky News 2017: Pitter-patter of tiny panda paws? Tian Tian believed to be ‘pregnant’