Live stream birth plan for pandas

ZOO bosses plan to stream the birth of Edinburgh’s first panda live on the internet – if Tian Tian and Yang Guang mate successfully.

There are only three days a year when female Tian Rian can fall pregnant and experts believe the crucial time will be between now and the end of May. They are monitoring hormone levels and will open the “tunnel of love” between the two enclosures at the appropriate moment.

If Tian Tian – on loan form China along with Yang Guang for ten years – did become pregnant, she would give birth between 58 and 105 days later.

Iain Valentine, Edinburgh Zoo’s director of animal conservation and research, said: “A newborn would be huge, not just for the zoo, but for the whole of the UK. It could be that we would be able to give the world the view of the panda giving birth live. It has been recorded before, but nobody’s ever given it to a live audience.”