Giant panda Tian Tian will be ready to mate within two weeks, zoo keepers have revealed.

Experts at Edinburgh Zoo have been monitoring the female's hormones and said she will shortly enter her brief fertile period.

They hope Tian Tian and the zoo's male panda Yang Guang will produce a cub this year as the creatures both start to show the tell-tale signs that they are ready to breed.

There was disappointment last year when the pair did not mate, and although Tian Tian was artificially inseminated, she lost her foetus at late term.

Tests showed the panda's oestrogen levels rose higher than her progesterone levels, a key sign that she will be ready to breed in the next seven to 14 days.