The zookeepers tried everything, from romantic music to a ‘love tunnel’ to get them together and in the mood for passion.
But when the pandas once again failed to mate at Edinburgh Zoo, it was decided they needed even more of a helping hand.
Now Tian Tian, the female panda, has been artificially inseminated in the hope there will be at last the patter of tiny paws. A zoo spokesman said last night she could give birth to cubs by the end of August.
Britain's only giant pandas, Sunshine and Sweetie, had problems during their short mating season and needed help
The male panda, Yang Guang, nicknamed Sunshine in Scotland, was expected to mate with Tian Tian, known as Sweetie, during her 36 hour fertility window
Edinburgh zoo management said a successful mating season was critical. They need cubs for financial reasons. The annual bill for bamboo is £70,000
The UK's only female giant panda (pictured) was inseminated after just two attempts to get her and Sunshine to mate naturally
The decision to inseminate Tian Tian – or Sweetie as she is called in Scotland – comes after just two attempts to get her and Yang Guang – or Sunshine - to mate naturally.
The pandas come into season only once a year and then only for a window of 36 hours between mid April and May.
It shows the desperation of the zoo management for panda cubs to fulfill their prediction that a million visitors will come to see their most high-profile animals.
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They need the numbers because it is costing the zoo £7 million to rent Sunshine and Sweetie for ten years, while the annual bill for bamboo is another £70,000 a year.
In a statement yesterday, the zoo’s spokesman said: ‘Our specialist team and experts from around the world performed artificial insemination on female giant panda Tian Tian in the early hours of this morning. Natural mating was not attempted.
Yang Guang had been interested and shown consistently encouraging behaviour, however based on his many years’ experience, our Chinese colleague Professor Wang felt that although Tian Tian had displayed all of the correct behaviours, she had also displayed signs that told him she would not be conducive to mating.’
Hopes had been high the two pandas would mate this year. The signs were good, with Sweetie showing clear signals she was nearing mating season, including grumpy behaviour and loss of appetite.
Sunshine explores Sweetie's enclosure and stretches out on the grass. The pandas were swapped to explore each other's environments
Sunshine (pictured left) and Sweetie (right) were played love songs by Marvin Gaye to create an amorous mating environment
Surprisingly, Sweetie is the mother of two cubs back in China and Sunshine's father holds the world record for fathering 107 panda pups
Throughout the last week, keepers swapped the bears between enclosures to prepare them. They tuned in radio station Smooth FM, which frequently plays songs by Barry White and Marvin Gaye, to get them in the mood for love.
The pandas were seen making eyes at each other through the grate separating them in the ‘love tunnel’ between their two enclosures. Sweetie was even heard crying out to Sunshine, who she arrived at the zoo with in December 2011.
But ultimately, it seems, she just wasn’t in the mood.
The zoo did not put the pandas together to even try and mate, because the animals can turn aggressive.
Sweetie is the mother of two cubs back in China and Sunshine’s father holds the world record for fathering 107 panda pups so both are likely to conceive naturally.
The two pandas were transported from China to Edinburgh in 2011 and are on loan for ten years
The zoo opted not to wait another year for the lucrative panda cubs. If Sweetie does become pregnant from the artificial insemination, it will take some time to find out.
Giant pandas experience delayed implantation, which means the fertilised egg fails to embed for many days.
Confirmation of whether she is expecting will come in mid-July when she will have an ultrasound scan. It is likely that her cub, or cubs, would be born at the end of August or the beginning of September.But for now the pandas are taking a break from the weight of public expectation and have been taken off display. The zoo’s spokesman said yesterday: ‘Both pandas and humans are sleeping today.
‘The procedures went very much to plan and they are both well, but will be off show until Tuesday.’