Edinburgh Zoo's red panda goes to the vet for toothache

Edinburgh Zoo's red panda makes a visit to the dentist look easy after having his tooth removed during a health check-up.

Keepers noticed that Bruce was not eating his food. They sent him to Royal Zoological Society of Scotland vets who discovered he was suffering from toothache.

Eleven-year-old Bruce laid on his back under a general anaesthetic, as they removed the problem tooth and checked him for other illnesses.

The endangered red panda, who arrived in Edinburgh in 2016, was given a clean bill of health and returned to his habitat.

Red pandas are native to the eastern Himalayas and south western China.

Bruce is now the only red panda at the zoo and is the grandfather of Priya, a female red panda who moved to the Highland Wildlife Park earlier this year.

Edinburgh Zoo's baby red panda Roxie was three-months-old when she died from stress caused by fireworks on Bonfire Night in 2024.

Her mother Ginger also died unexpectedly five days earlier at the age of nine.

Red pandas have become an endangered species, mainly due to habitat loss, human interference and poaching.

They are not related to giant pandas but rather closer to raccoons, skunks and weasels.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) estimates there are fewer than 10,000 red pandas left in the wild.

They are classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).