Helen Martin: Edinburgh is no place for pandas

A FEW years ago at the Highland Wildlife Park in Kincraig, I was speaking to one of the keepers of the red pandas, a species who share reserves in China with giant pandas.

Red pandas breed happily at the Highland Wildlife Park

They have some similarities, as in they both eat bamboo. But they’re not related.

Kitty, a red panda, has had three litters in Kincraig. Obviously, reproduction isn’t as complex and rare as it is with giants who belong to the bear family. But at the time, the keeper expressed serious disappointment that Tian Tian and Yang Guang had been sent to Edinburgh Zoo, which could attract such a greater number of visitors, but he said, but was too urban for the pair.

Obviously he was right. No babies ... and with a natural habitat of remote, mountainous, bamboo forests in central China, living in a little “hut” next to a building site in Corstorphine is pants for pandas.

A retired vet from Gullane has called for them to be returned to China. Let’s all back her and write to our MP.