Edinburgh zoo’s female panda, Tian Tian, has failed to produce a cub despite a sixth attempt to impregnate her through artificial insemination.
The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), which owns the zoo, attempted the insemination in late March but confirmed on Monday that it had failed to result in pregnancy.
Charlotte Macdonald, the zoo’s director of conservation and living collections, said: “Tian Tian was artificially inseminated at the end of March and we now know this was not successful.
“Giant panda breeding is an incredibly complex, unpredictable process and we will continue to share our research with our colleagues in China. It is too soon to say what any next steps will be.”
The zoo acquired Tian Tian and her mate, Yang Guang, in 2011 in a 10-year agreement with the Chinese government, which coincided with talks that led to a £2.6bn trade deal.
The RZSS pays China $1m (£810,000) a year for the pair, not including their accommodation and breeding costs, thought to be in the region of £2m a year.
Tian Tian had twins in 2009 and the zoo first tried to coax the pair into breeding naturally in 2012, extensively publicising the attempted coupling.
This failed, however, and the zoo switched to artificial insemination using sperm from Yang Guang and then frozen samples from a male bear that has since died from Berlin zoo, which announced last week that its panda had had twins.
Each attempt at artificial insemination has also resulted in failure and the RZSS has since adopted a much lower-key publicity stance.
The zoo suspended its breeding programme last year a few weeks after Iain Valentine, the RZSS conservation director who had played a key role in brokering the panda deal, quit his post. It is understood he took up a consultancy with China’s panda conservation centre.
The zoo may choose to entirely abandon its breeding efforts. China allows zoos that successfully breed young pandas to keep the cubs for two years, but Tian Tian and Yang Guang are due to be handed back to the Chinese in 2021, unless the loan is extended.
This would otherwise give Edinburgh only one year to show off its cub, and one year to enjoy the anticipated increase in gate receipts from visitors.
The zoo has a four-star overall rating on TripAdvisor but a large minority of visitors posted one- and two-star reviews this summer, complaining about high prices and a lack of visible animals.
