Panda ©Chi King
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Since the arrival of two very cute giant pandas, visitor numbers at the Edinburgh Zoo are up 200 percent. Around 70,000 people have visited the new zoo residents since December–more than three times the number who visited the zoo during the same period in 2010.
The two pandas, named Tian Tian and Yang Guang, were a gift from the Chinese Wildlife Conservation Organisation. They are the first giant pandas to live in the UK for 17 years and hopefully will be a breeding pair (Tian Tian is a female and Yang Guang is a male).
Edinburgh Zoo chief executive Hugh Roberts is excited about the increase in numbers:
We’ve been fully booked almost every day so far and expect the popularity of Tian Tian and Yang Guang to continue. Visitors’ faces have been amazing, both young and old. For the vast majority of people this is the first chance they’ve had in their lifetime to cast their eyes on a giant panda.
The pandas arrived in Edinburgh on December 4th 2011 and have been on show to zoo visitors since December 16th–with the exception of a couple of sick days due to colic.
Read more at Daily Mail.