Lets Get it On: Zoo Bosses Play Smooth Radio to Giant Panda Yang Guang to Get Him in the Mood

Giant panda Yang Guang is being encouraged to mate by listening to the sensual sounds of Smooth Radio.

Edinburgh Zoo bosses are hoping that by switching the bear's radio from Classic FM to Simon Bates and David "Kid" Jensen, they will be able to get him in the mood to make love to female panda Tian Tian.

"We play easy listening radio to Yang Guang in his off-show area," a spokeswoman for Edinburgh Zoo confirmed.

"He has always been more sensitive than Tian Tian to background noise, so it's settling and soothing for him to have it playing softly in the background.

"You can often see him sit back, relax and eat his bamboo whilst the radio is on."

Experts at the zoo say that the two pandas, who have been on loan from China since 2011, are ready to breed.

The pair's warm-up routine as the panda mating season approaches includes physical exercises, special lighting and extra rations of bamboo. Tian Tian has begun producing high-pitched chirps that indicate her hormones are changing. .

Keepers are now doing their best to encourage the would-be father to mate with Tian Tian because female pandas ovulate only once a year and are then only fertile for 48 hours afterwards.

And it seems that Smooth Radio is playing its part too.

The station has been playing a daily song for Yang Guang, including hits like Marvin Gaye's Let's Get It On and I Wanna Lay With You by The Sherbs.

A spokeswoman at Smooth Radio described the situation as "very amusing".

If Yang Guang and Tian Tian mate successfully this year, their cubs would be the first panda offspring born in the UK.