Pichu and Isla are believed to have exploited an opportunity when a tree came down on their enclosure at Galloway Wildlife Conservation Park during a storm, The Scotsman reported.

John Denerley, who owns the park with his wife, Kathleen, said the mother and daughter pandas might be able to survive for some time in the woods near Kircudbright, even without the bamboo they prefer. But he said he hopes they return and that Mushu, Isla's father, clearly misses his companions.

"Mushu is pining for them," he said. "We have been searching for a few days, and now we have asked everyone who lives near the park to look up their trees, in their gardens, and in their sheds. I just hope they make their own way back when they get hungry."

Wildlife police have placed traps normally used to catch invasive grey squirrels without killing them. There are no results so far, although there has been at least one possible sighting by a man who wondered why a fox would be climbing a tree.