The last time I visited Flamingo Land was in February 2015 and this was when Surya the adult Sumatran tigeress had three eleven month-old triplets with her, the cubs were two females Bulan and Mentari and the big male cub, Kuasa. Bawa on the other hand (The father of the triplets) was virtually unseen during my last visit, however, things were opposite on this occasion. Having spent the first hour or so having a gander around the collection, I returned to the tiger enclosure to find both tigers still in their house with Bawa pacing indoors, it should be noted that both tigers had outdoor access, however, due to the severe cold in Yorkshire, I supported their decision to stay indoors!
Bawa is an impressive male, at the age of eight years old he is in his prime and spent a while during the afternoon calling to Surya. The studbook keeper at the moment has suspended breeding with this pair due to the genes from both families, Surya's side is more stronger than Bawa's. Surya's parents had four successful offspring and her mother, Banda is the offspring of the infamous pairing at Dudley Zoo between Sarah and Filon. As mentioned in past blogs, Surya's father, Tenang (Who unfortunately passed around twelve to eighteen months due to a kidney failure at the splendid age of around fifteen/sixteen years old) was the result of a very important import from Perth Zoo in early 2002/03. Surya's siblings consist of two males and a female. Her litter mates were actually two males and another female (Not the one previously mentioned!) however, the female cub died at a young age due to an injury relating to the leg. The two males are Aryo who is now in Netherlands at Arnhem/Burgers Zoo and the other male is Bintang who is at Zoo Doue La Fontaine, the two males are now fathers to several tigers. Surya's other sibling is Kirana the now retired female at Chester Zoo, who was born in a separate litter with a brother, Topan, who unfortunately died due to a heart condition. A touching tribute to him is that Chester Zoo named one of Kirana's sons after Topan. As you can see, with Kirana having seven cubs, Aryo having four and Bintang having several too then this leads to quite a lot of related tigers in Europe. A sensible move to suspend the breeding from Surya/Bawa at the moment.
Surya is a beautiful tiger and moves in such a majestic way which is one of the many reasons I find her an amazing tiger. Bawa is a typical male tiger, with a very big head and long length body, Kuasa very much takes after his father in my opinion with his head size. A little bit of trivia, Flamingo Land previously held Eurasian lynx in one side of the tiger enclosure and a pair of Amur tiger sisters in the other. Flamingo Land's tiger enclosure is one of my personal highlights of the collection because of the history, it is one of the very few enclosures I remember as a small child as well as the polar bear enclosure (Which is no longer there).
I spent most of the day with the tigers of course, however, after feeding time they decided to head back indoors. Both tigers spent some time enjoying pieces of meat left for them and then Bawa spent some time calling to Surya and vice-versa. The sound of a tiger calling is one of the most spectacular things I have ever heard and I will never, ever, get bored of it. Overall a great day at Flamingo Land albeit a little cold, but, very inspiring talking to two of their keepers and spending time with the most amazing tigers.
A brief update, I have a Chester, Colchester and Blackpool blog all to come yet, stay tuned as there is much more to come before the year is out and some exciting developments happening in 2017.
Again, thank you to all for having a read and sharing the blog, I would appreciate it if you could all continue reading, sharing and giving feedback.
All the best,
Jordan.
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