Apologises for the lack of posts over the past few months, I have been extremely busy with my new job and trying to keep up with the blog was extremely difficult. However, I'm back and I have a new Blog today from my trip to Wales, more specifically Colwyn Bay and even more specifically Welsh Mountain Zoo. I even had company this time, in the form of my lovely other half, Molly. It was her first visit to Welsh Mountain Zoo and excluding the walking up the hills, she enjoyed the trip and was particularly invested in the zoo's pair of lar gibbon and also the breeding pair of American alligator.
I was last down at Welsh Mountain Zoo in December, so not too long ago, not much had changed - at this time, the zoo's pair of Sumatran tigers, Budi and Kinnara were still new-ish to each other. Kinnara arrived first in Wales with her twin sister, Keisha who I saw quite recently too in Spain at Terra Natura Benidorm. Kinnara is easily identifiable as she as a significant marking above her left eye, Budi is a London boy and arrived from ZSL London Zoo in January 2016 having left with his brother, Nakal who joined Hujan at West Midland's Safari Park. From the reports, Budi settled better than Nakal as Nakal was rather cautious and nervous in the Midlands, especially joining an older female such as Hujan.
I have never had much luck trying to get any photographs of the pair at Welsh Mountain Zoo but the visit on the 2nd August 2017 was different - Kinnara and Budi were at the far end of their enclosure, one of which is my most favourite natural tiger enclosures within the UK, at least. You can still see the old lion house (I believe it is the old lion house - I could be wrong!) at the far end of the paddock where the young duo were at the time of my visit.
Budi spent most of the day at the bottom of the paddock, sleeping, fortunately, he looked quite comfortable and from time to time, decided to pop his head up and see what Kinnara was doing. Kinnara, was sat on a small platform asleep at first, but, then she decided to wake up and see what was occurring in her surroundings. Kinnara is such a beautiful tigeress with a strong face whereas Budi has a a widen face.
The future does look bright for this pair as they have bonded very well, Welsh Mountain Zoo as far as I'm aware have never bred pure-bred Sumatran tiger cubs and if the decision is given that Budi/Kinnara do breed which seems likely given how important Budi is to the European breeding programme considering his parents, Jae Jae and Melati are extremely important then it would be fantastic to see Welsh Mountain Zoo finally have a breeding pair of Sumatran tigers with cubs.
That's all for now folks, I do plan on updating the Blog as much as possible, dependent on news, it should be around once a week with expansion into conservation work among one of the things that I shall be focusing on. I believe education is a huge part of saving species such as tigers and getting this blog out there, even, if it's just to one person than it's spreading the message about saving the tiger!
Thank you all for reading,
Jordan.
