Failed million-pound bid for Scottish panda ‘has been a disgrace’

Edinburgh zoo stays silent on prospect of a final bid to produce cubs before Tian Tian and Yang Guang return to China

For a couple of years, Scotland's two giant pandas were the biggest celebrities in the land. Now, as they prepare for their final scheduled year in captivity on Scottish soil, before returning to their native China, Tian Tian and Yang Guang are largely forgotten after a decade of failed and increasingly desperate attempts to coax them into producing offspring.

They arrived at Edinburgh zoo in 2011 and made headlines for months as the nation waited for the first giant panda to be born in Scotland. Record numbers of visitors followed, and at one point the then first minister, Alex Salmond, joked that the country had more pandas than Tories.