Visiting pandas, Tian Tian and Yang Guang, have now completed the first year of their 10 year stay at Edinburgh Zoo, which has been deemed a great success in terms of research and visits.

During this time the Zoo's team has learnt some vital lessons which will help the global panda conservation effort, including information about nutrition and male breeding.

Director of research and conservation, Iain Valentine, says: “Our first giant panda year has been a great success. We at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland have learnt an enormous amount about Tian Tian and Yang Guang and also about giant pandas as an entire species.”

Around 500,000 people have visited the zoo to see the pandas, which has won them an honorary Scottish Thistle Award for their services to tourism. They have also inspired panda tartan and panda milk.

One of the aims is to breed a panda baby, and the team are now putting in preliminary preparations for the 2013 breeding programme. The priority is to synchronise their breeding cycles through a strict lights out policy in the enclosures, which simulates natural light levels, as lighting levels effects hormones.