Tian Tian (Chinese: 甜甜; pinyin: Tián Tián, meaning "Sweetie") is a female panda born on 24 August 2003 at the Beijing Zoo from mother Niu Niu and father Ying Ying, and a former resident at Edinburgh Zoo, Scotland.^[1] She arrived in Edinburgh in December 2011^[2] together with a male panda named Yáng Guāng (Chinese: 陽光, meaning "sunshine"). They were the only two pandas in the United Kingdom.^[3] They are on loan from the Bifengxia Breeding Centre in China at a cost of £640,000 per year.^[4]

The initial ten-year loan was extended by two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic; in September 2023 it was announced that the pair would return to China in December of that year.^[5]

The pandas arrived in China on December 4, 2023.

Pregnancies

When in China Tian Tian, successfully gave birth to twins on 7 August 2009. The male cub was named Shen Wei and the female Bo Si.^[6] After her arrival at Edinburgh Zoo she had an unsuccessful mating season in 2012.^[7] In April 2013 Royal Zoological Society of Scotland performed on her the first artificial insemination procedure on a giant panda in the UK. They later confirm that Tian Tian had become pregnant, but most likely reabsorbed the foetus late term.^[8] On 12 August 2014 Iain Valentine, Director of Giant Pandas for the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, announced that a second implantation had taken place, she was pregnant and birth was expected around the end of August 2014.^[9] On 22 September 2014 Edinburgh Zoo announced that she was no longer pregnant.^[10] On 26 March 2015 it was announced that a third artificial insemination had taken place^[11] but by August 2015 it was believed she had lost the cub.^[12][13] In October 2015 scientists said they were exploring cloning the pandas at Edinburgh Zoo.^[13]

On 24 August 2017 it was revealed that Edinburgh Zoo had believed she was pregnant again after being artificially inseminated for the fifth time in 2016.^[14] The expected date for a birth was as early as 25 August 2017^[14] although the Zoo said was hard to predict and the panda breeding season can last until late September.^[15] On 11 September 2017, the Zoo said that Tian Tian was not pregnant and her hormone levels had returned to normal.^[16]

In the media

The coverage of Tian Tian's pregnancies at Edinburgh Zoo became so widespread that BBC Radio 4 current affairs programme PM broadcast satirical daily "Possible Panda Pregnancy Update[s]".^[17]