Celebrity welcome for Tian Tian and Yang Guang, on 10-year loan from China for genetics and cognition research
With all the trappings of A-list celebrity, giant pandas Tian Tian and Yang Guang touched down at Edinburgh airport on Sunday precisely on schedule, to an eerily auspicious dusting of snow over their new home.
They flew in on a private Boeing 777 airliner complete with customised "Panda Express" livery; a bespoke cuisine of bamboo, apples, carrots and specially prepared "panda cake"; and private suites of Perspex and steel.
As their personalised crates were slowly lowered on to the tarmac by freight ramps, under the gaze of the world's media and the bitterly cold, dour winter skies of Edinburgh, Tian Tian and Yang Guang could be seen slowly ambling around like musicians limbering up for the biggest gig of their careers.
The pandas, whose names mean Sweetie and Sunshine, were then driven to their new home at Edinburgh zoo – to be greeted by scores of flag-waving school children, a massed pipe band, and a welcoming committee of political leaders – with a heavy weight of expectation on their shoulders.
The breeding pair are a symbol of the UK's burgeoning political and economic relationship with China. China's chargé d'affaires in London, Qin Gang, carefully reminded an official press conference that next year will be the 40th anniversary of the UK formally recognising his communist-led government.
The arrival of the pandas would help spread "joy and friendship, and spread understanding and cooperation between the two countries," he added. "We are committed to working with our British and Scottish colleagues to grasp this opportunity and take Chinese-Scottish relations to a new level."
Nicola Sturgeon, the deputy first minister of Scotland, said: "Today is a very, very special day indeed for Scotland." She was standing in for her boss, Alex Salmond, who by careful design had just arrived in China for his third official trade mission, and a week-long cultural and industrial tour taking in Beijing and Hong Kong.
For Edinburgh zoo the pandas are a godsend after the most difficult period in its 102-year history. Last year, the zoo lost £1.5m, saw its visitor numbers slump 15% to just under 550,000, and had to be rescued with a £2m bank loan; while this year it has seen directors suspended for alleged misconduct. One was exonerated and reinstated, one was dismissed and its previous chief executive left.
The idea of bidding for coveted pandas came after a £20m property deal to sell vacant zoo land for housing fell through in 2007, leaving the zoo searching for funds for much-needed renovations and modernisation.
Hugh Roberts, the zoo's interim chief executive, brought in earlier this year to rescue the zoo's fortunes, said the Chinese had kept their cool. "The Chinese remained steady and friendly with us throughout that entire process," he told the Guardian, adding: "It's a big political act. The Chinese aren't going to be derailed by press speculation." Tian Tian and Yang Guang – on loan for $1m (£637,000) a year – are expected to attract hundreds of thousands of extra visitors, boosting ticket receipts by up to 70%, and cementing the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland's credentials for conservation science.
It will be at least two weeks before the public will be allowed to visit the pandas; they are being given a fortnight of solitude to help them settle in and acclimatise.
The scientific focus during their 10-year loan to Edinburgh will be on genetics and cognition research, said Hugh Roberts, the zoo's interim chief executive, but the biggest commercial, ecological and political prize will be if the pair successfully breed, again boosting gate receipts and Edinburgh's global status.
China owns 328 captive giant pandas, which are critically endangered and down to just 1,300 left in the wild. But Jia Jiansheng, of the Chinese state forestry administration, said zoologists now believe up to 400 are needed to ensure a rich and stable genetic stock, to secure their survival and boost successful release into the wild.
Qin Gang, from the Chinese embassy, said both pandas had productive ancestors. Tian Tian has borne and successfully raised twins, and Yang Guang is also already a father. That has particular significance for pandas: the females are only fertile for at most four days a year, and only ready to mate for less than two of those days. Mostly solitary, the pandas will be kept in separate areas of their specially modified enclosures within sight of each other until Tian Tian is ready to mate. "The biggest test will be reproductive," Qin Gang said. "We hope that the cooperation of British and Chinese scientists will help Tian Tian and Yang Guang to become happy parents." And Edinburgh, said Qin Gang, was an "auspicious" location for the pandas, beating Moscow zoo by having the most ideal latitude: pandas prefer cool, damp climates, between 5C and 25C. Edinburgh on Sunday hovered between 2C and 3.5C, and saw its first snowfall of the year.
Edinburgh is the fourth European zoo, after Berlin, Vienna and Madrid, to provide a current home to Chinese giant pandas, and the 13th around the world. It is the fifth time the UK has played host to pandas. The most famous British residents were at London zoo, Chi Chi 50 years ago and then Ching Ching in the 1970s. But none have so far successfully produced young; the last pair, Ming Ming and Bao Bao reputedly fought before they were separated and sent overseas in 1994.
There were no protests by animal rights groups or human rights activists for the new pandas' arrival; the only echo of the civil rights and ethical complaints raised at a distance by Amnesty International, Free Tibet, Born Free and the Captive Animals Conservation Society, came from Rosemary and Stefan Byfield, from New Tang Dynasty Television, a small anti-communist broadcaster.
NTD TV supports the Falun Gong spiritual movement which has been suppressed by Chinese authorities. Rosemary Byfield said the couple had been accredited for the official press conference at the zoo then, when the invitation list was shown to the Chinese embassy, had it abruptly withdrawn.
Henry Nicholls, a science writer and author of The Way of the Panda: the curious history of China's political animal, said it would be wise to ignore the hype.
"It seems like the wrong time to sound a note of caution, but pandas are pretty unpredictable animals about breeding," he said. "Nevertheless, Edinburgh should still consider them incredibly worthwhile as symbolic objects that raise the status of the institution: they just a pair of bears but, a very special pair of bears."