EDINBURGH Zoo have been gifted a batch of panda SEMEN from China in a desperate bid to produce a cub.

The Chinese government stepped in after Tian Tian failed to fall pregnant despite five attempts at artificial insemination.

2 The pandas have failed to breed successfully since their arrival in 2011

Semen from male panda Yang Guang has been replaced after "high quality panda semen" was flown 5,000 to the Scots zoo.

Plans to use the deposit this summer were scrapped after animal rights protesters put pressure on bosses.

The unused semen is being stored at the zoo after it was announced last month the breeding programme had been cancelled.

Zoo chiefs released a statement stating they would use the year to assess the breeding process and the panda enclosure.

Chair of trustees of the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland said: “The female panda will shortly come into season.

2 Sperm has been sent over from China to help with the process

“She is a key part of the Chinese Government’s panda breeding programme, and that Government has gone to considerable lengths to provide RZSS with frozen semen from a high quality panda in captivity in China to permit artificial insemination (AI) in Edinburgh in 2018.

“As you will be aware our attempts to date at breeding have been unsuccessful.”

Mr Peat also told the government that the giant pandas were at “mortal risk” if a new development next to the zoo is to be given the go ahead.

He said: "I alerted your principal private secretary in late December to advice from our potential advisers that the noise, vibration and other effects likely to result from a development planned at the Old Corstorphine Hospital site posed a mortal risk to the zoo’s giant pandas.

“The panda enclosure is next to the hospital site. Matters are now becoming critical.

“Their advice to us was to negotiate directly with the developer.

“The pandas are a ‘gift from the Chinese Government to the UK Government...Our aim must be to protect that gift.”

Sarah Moyes, campaigner at OneKind, said: “The news that Royal Zoological Society of Scotland has sought frozen semen from a panda in China raises concerns that there are still plans to impregnate Tian Tian.

“Since coming to Edinburgh, both pandas have been subjected to repeated attempts to produce a cub to boost visitor numbers, including AI which is an invasive procedure.

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“OneKind has long-called for Tian Tian to be left in peace. Any panda cub born at Edinburgh Zoo would never be introduced to the wild and would only ever know a life in captivity.”

Tian Tian and Yang Guang came to Edinburgh in December 2011 on a 10-year loan, as part of a £2.6 billion trade deal with China.

The Scots zoo gives China £760,000 a year for keeping the pandas and another £2 million for their upkeep.

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