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 signs they are ready to breed.
There was disappointment last year when the pair did not mate. 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 on Tuesday - a key sign that she will be ready to breed in the next seven to 14 days.
Iain Valentine, from the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, which runs the zoo, said: "Panda breeding season is progressing nicely and over the coming days both Tian Tian and Yang Guang's behaviour will become much more pronounced.
He added: "Panda breeding season remains a delicate and complex affair, which takes in cutting-edge science from not only within Scotland but also abroad."
Experts will watch Tian Tian's behaviour closely over the coming days to gauge when her 36-hour breeding window begins. Professor Wang Chengdong, from the China Conservation and Research Centre for Giant Pandas, will arrive in Edinburgh today to help decode the pandas' behaviour in the run-up to the mating period.
If the pandas do not mate, artificial insemination will again take place.
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