Anyway, I have always enjoyed their tiger exhibit and conservation work which in my opinion, is severely overlooked. South Lakes have had a very interesting number of years with their tigers. They first received a male Sumatran tiger named 'Toba' in 1996 before the arrival of two Amur tigers, 'Egor' and 'Nina' who were a brother and sister pairing from Marwell Wildlife. These two tigers were the poster tigers for South Lakes, these two tigers were the tigers which were shown for the infamous pole climbing (The tiger feeding talk which included the meat being placed on the top of the pole and the tigers climbing the pole for their meat). Egor died in 2008/09 at the age of eleven/twelve years old from a suspected kidney failure. However, Nina lived up until around about 2012 and was one of the tigers who I had spent a lot of time with and studying.
Moving back to the Sumatrans, South Lakes held Sumatran tigers which have been their 'star' animal or main attraction, the park's founder, the ever controversial David Gill created the Sumatran Tiger Trust to aid the conservation work in Sumatra. One thing I enjoy reading in South Lakes' guidebooks is the history of their conservation work, there is a family tree of some icon tigers which have been an influential part of their work.
South Lakes have only ever had one tiger cub born in their collection history, a female named 'Kadi' who was named after Mr Gill's daughter. 'Kadi' was born on the 7th September 2010 to the then breeding pair, 'Padang' and 'Alesha'. Both of these tigers have prestigious and historical bloodlines, firstly, 'Padang' is the son of the infamous pairing of 'Sarah' and 'Filon' from Dudley Zoo and is one of the tigers from the 2002 litter. Whereas, 'Alesha' was from the Berlin Tierpark's line of 'Santana' and 'Morris', she was born on the 9th July 2002 with her two siblings, 'Soraya' and 'Shakira' (Now with 'Fabi' at Paignton Zoo). Unfortunately, this pair are now deceased as 'Alesha' died in November 2013. and 'Padang' was euthanised in June of 2016 due to 'long standing health problems'. 'Kadi' also is no longer with us.
Now, the South Lakes Safari Zoo hold one male and three female Sumatran tigers, the male and two of the females are brother and sisters. The male is 'Kumbuh' and one of the three females, 'Cinta' were litter mates, born 22nd September 2014 at Zoo Doue la Fontaine in France. The parents of these two are 'Kiara' and the father, 'Bintang' who was one of the litter of three born at Paignton Zoo in February 2009 with 'Aryo' (Now at Arnhem/Burger's Zoo) and 'Surya' (Now at Flamingo Land). Making 'Cinta' and 'Kumbuh' the cousins to tigers such as 'Bulan', 'Kuasa', 'Mentari' and more importantly 'Janine'.
Now, this isn't a tiger familiar with many of you and the reason why is because 'Janine' doesn't exist anymore. Meet... 'Cin Cin Emas', the founder of South Lakes Safari Zoo renamed 'Janine' when she arrived in January 2015. As mentioned, she is the offspring of 'Aryo' and his current partner at Arnhem/Burger's Zoo, 'Jarum'. 'Cin Cin Emas' was born on the 5th May 2013 in a litter of two with her sister, 'Lara'. The final female at South Lakes Safari Zoo is 'Mayang' who is another tiger renamed by David Gill, she was born on the 14th November 2012 at Zoo Doue la Fontaine therefore is the full sibling from the first litter. However, she was first named 'Phuket', again another case of renaming at South Lakes Safari Zoo. She originally moved to Haute La Touche before arriving at South Lakes on the 13th June 2015.
The tiger history at South Lakes has always fascinated me, not to mention how many different tigers they've had and numerous moves around the park in different enclosures. In my opinion, the (now) Way Kambas Tiger Reserve will always be an iconic piece of the park, and has overseen the change from Amur and Sumatran tiger, to jaguar, to snow leopard, to giant anteater before the eventual change to make the Way Kambas Tiger Reserve. Something I always like about zoo's in general is the fact that a specific enclosure has such an influence on people because of the effort dedicated to it. This can be seen in different collections throughout the country from ZSL London Zoo's 'Tiger Territory' to Edinburgh Zoo's 'Tiger Tracks'.
I spent the majority of the day with the Sumatran tigers, with four tigers in one enclosure I was interested to see how they cohabited. The male was rather relaxed, however, the females were a little less calmer than him. When I arrived early on, three individuals were at the indoor viewing window, one of which wasn't too pleased with people at the window. Continuous snarling and hissing was taking place, though the time I was the three females spent a lot of time chuffing towards each other, head rubbing and other friendly tiger behaviour. The female who spent a lot of time throughout the enclosure was 'Mayang', searching the enclosure and spending a lot of time with one of the other females. Something which I found on my recent visits to the collection is that since the fencing has been removed, the tigers prefer the dense cover than the open part of the enclosure. The overall size of the enclosure with the added cover is rather nice.
Anyway, thanks for reading folks, expect more blogs coming this year with more conservation stories/projects on the blog as well as a deeper look into tigers in Europe, their bloodlines and famiy trees. Thanks again for reading guys!
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