Along with the Duchess of Cambridge’s pregnancy bump, the most sought-after pictures in the UK will be of the pandas mating in Edinburgh Zoo.
This unconsummated courtship has lasted longer than some of my marriages, and public interest is so great that the zoo has installed video cameras inside the enclosures of the male Yang Guang and his paramour, Tian Tian, so fans can track the reluctant lovers 24 hours a day.
Spot the difference? Testing pandacam at Edinburgh Zoo
To test the system’s responses, human volunteers dressed up as pandas and wandered around mimicking their behaviour (presumably they weren’t required to munch on bamboo), but the resulting pictures could easily be mistaken for the fur-embellished outfits seen on the catwalks in Milan.
Yesterday, live on pandacam, Guang sat on his backside stuffing his face with a giant heap of food — a similar scene probably taking place in kitchens all over the UK.
Sadly, Tian Tian is fertile for only three days a year, and to preserve her dignity, pandacam will be turned off for the thrilling moment when the pair are brought together to (possibly) mate.
Have zoo keepers not considered that some couples find being filmed having sex a bit of a turn-on?
