A DELIVERY driver who ferries urine samples from Edinburgh Zoo's pandas to laboratories for analysis has spoken of his pride in helping the bears to mate.
Each day Steven Bruce, from Fairmilehead in Edinburgh, makes a 360-mile round-trip by motorbike to transport panda urine samples to Chester Zoo's Endocrine Laboratory.
The journey is essential for panda experts to analyse female Tian Tian's hormone levels and determine when she is most interested in her mate Yang Guang.
A daily delivery is vital to understanding Tian Tian's behaviour as experts believe mating could take place within the next "10 to 14 days". Mr Bruce, 34, said: "I make sure Tian Tian's samples are carefully transported each day and take great pride in playing a part in such an exciting and important part of the panda's stay at Edinburgh Zoo.
"Everyone is really interested in what I do when I tell them; there is a real sense of excitement about anything to do with the pandas."
Samples are also sent on a daily basis for testing at the Centre for Integrative Physiology at the University of Edinburgh.
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