Two giant pandas that will be residents at Edinburgh Zoo for the next ten years have gone on show to the media for the first time.
STV News cameras caught the pair getting acclimatised to their new home before going on show to the public on Friday, December 16.
Tian Tian and Yang Guang have been walking around their outside enclosures for the first time and stopped to greet each other through an adjoining gate.
Alison MacLean, the zoo's team leader of giant pandas and carnivores, said: "They've settled in extremely well. We couldn't be more pleased with them. Basically from the moment the travelling crate was opened, the male made the house his home. He went straight for the bamboo and sat down and started eating.
"The female took a wee while longer. She decided to check out everywhere within the enclosure and settled down for a snooze before eating bamboo.
"This is the second day they've been out and they're now just checking things out and scent-marking.
"They had a little sniff at each other's noses, had a look at one another and the two of them put their paws up just to see what one another would do but there was no aggression, so it's been very good."
Tian Tian and Yang Guang arrived in the capital earlier in December after a 5000-mile journey from China.
The eight-year-old breeding pair have spent the time since getting used to their new surroundings, handlers said.
Female Tian Tian, whose name means "sweetie", and Yang Guang, meaning "sunshine", travelled from China on a plane dubbed the Panda Express, along with a vet and two animal handlers.
They were given an in-flight meal of bamboo, apples, carrots and a special “panda cake” during the long journey.
The panda's arrival from the Ya'an reserve in Chengdu, China, marks the culmination of a five-year effort to bring the animals to Scotland. It is hoped that the pandas, the first to live in the UK for 17 years, will eventually give birth to cubs.
Iain Valentine, director of animals, conservation and research at Edinburgh Zoo, travelled with the pandas on the flight from China. He said they both had a good initial reaction to their new home.
He said: "The female moved straight into the inside house. There was no hesitation. So a willingness to get into the new enclosure. And the male was exactly the same, so we'll just take it from there."
Zoo bosses have described their arrival as a "historic occasion" for the attraction and the UK as a whole.
Hundreds of well-wishers greeted the new arrivals when they got to the zoo, with a police escort guiding them on their short journey from the airport.
Zoo chief executive Hugh Roberts said he was "so proud" to have the pandas at the visitor attraction.
"This is the moment we have been waiting for since we first discussed bringing the giant pandas to Edinburgh almost five years ago," he said. "We see the pandas as catalysts for research, education and conservation - aimed at improving the future for pandas."
