Edinburgh Zoo's red panda Bruce recovers after vets remove a bad tooth and give him a clean bill of health

From the Newshound archive · first published 24 September 2026 · last updated 25 September 2026.

Bruce, an 11-year-old red panda at Edinburgh Zoo, lost his appetite and was given a full health check-up, during which vets at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland discovered he had toothache. The tooth was removed under general anaesthetic, and Bruce has since returned to his enclosure, sleeping in pine trees and foraging for bamboo as normal.

Priya, a female red panda now living at Highland Wildlife Park after relocating there earlier this year, is Bruce's granddaughter.

Fewer than 2,500 red pandas are thought to survive in the wild, a population low enough for the species to be listed as endangered.

A zoo photograph taken during the procedure shows Bruce lying on the operating table, a hairdryer positioned beside his head.