So, this is the first post from 2018, on the 17th February 2018, I headed to Flamingo Land which hold a trio of Sumatran tigers. It's been around a year and a half since my last visit to Flamingo Land, it is always one of my favourite places to go as it reminds me of my childhood visits with my parents and grandparents. The very few memories I have of Flamingo Land include Mandy, their last polar bear, the old parrot aviaries, seeing my first ever lynx at the park and asking my dad what exactly is a lynx? My other distinct memory from Flamingo Land is seeing Chow and Naimair, two female Amur tigers the park held up until around 2012/13.
Flamingo Land have two lovely tiger enclosures, as previously mentioned, the park has held Amur tiger and Eurasian lynx and from my earliest memories, these two species originally took up the residence in the current Sumatran tiger enclosures. From the viewing balcony at the top, the left hand side exhibit held the lynx and the right hand-side held the two Amur tiger sisters. The pair of lynx eventually passed away and thus, leaving their side of the cat exhibits, empty. Until 2010, both the Amur tiger sisters had free roam of both enclosures until Flamingo Land acquired their first Sumatran tiger, a young male named Bawa. Bawa was born at Wildlife Heritage Foundation, now known as the Big Cat Sanctuary, in Kent. He is the offspring of Puna and Nias, he was in a litter of two with his brother, Asu, who lives in France. Bawa was then joined a week later, by a young female Surya from Paignton Zoo.
I made my first visit back to Flamingo Land in February 2012 to see Bawa, Surya and the two old Amur tiger girls and have since returned to Flamingo Land five times since. Sadly in 2012/13, both Chow and Naimair passed away due to old age, they had been approaching twenty, having been born in 1993.
With the two female Amur tigers now no longer at the park, this then left Flamingo Land with another empty side of their two cat exhibits. With Surya and Bawa being rather cats, in 2012, I'd saw mating, however, nothing came of it. However, with a breeding recommendation from the studbook keeper, on the 22nd March 2014, Surya successfully produced three cubs. A male, Kuasa and two females, Mentari and Bulan, these were the first ever Sumatran tiger cubs successfully born at Flamingo Land. I spent two days at Flamingo Land in 2015 to see this lovely trio - in 2016, all three cubs left the zoo after being successfully raised by Surya. Kuasa had moved to Zoo la Boissiere du Dore and his two sisters, Bulan and Mentari moved together to Italy, at Zoo Bioparc de Rome.
With all three cubs now gone, Surya and Bawa were put back together and successfully mated again and in August 2017, produced another cub, a female named Menya. This was my first time seeing Menya and for her age is a really strong character and individual. This time, Flamingo Land decided to keep Bawa with Surya and cub, as was told at the tiger talk, Bawa is happiest when he is with Surya.
I spent most of my day at the tiger enclosure, throughout the morning, Bawa and Menya didn't make any appearances, however, Surya kept popping out and wandering her territory in the morning. At the midday feed, two pieces of meat were hidden up trees separately, in the enclosure. Menya was fed a small rabbit before this feed took place, however, Surya headed straight for the piece of meat closest to the rock formation whereas Bawa headed towards the group of trees, where the other piece of meat was placed. Surya seemed to have some trouble getting the piece of meat down, it wasn't helped by the fact her daughter was jumping on her backside and tail as she jumped up the tree to retrieve her prize. It took Surya around ten to fifteen minutes to actually retrieve the meat, at the other end of the enclosure, Bawa took one glance up and then didn't even attempt to go for the food. Interestingly enough, Bawa had joined Surya and Menya on the rock formation and sat a few metres away from Surya whilst she ate her meat.
One thing which I really enjoy about these public feeds is that it shows how much power and strength that these magnificent cats have. Obviously in the wild, not all of their prey items are up trees, but, placing food up the tree allows the cats to use muscles and power that they posses. It is always fantastic to hear the crunching sound of the bone when the cat is ripping away at the meat.
A short while after, Menya left her parents on the rock formation and headed over to where the other, uneaten piece of meat was placed. It was fantastic to see a young cub, attempt and almost successfully bring the piece of meat down from the small-ish tree. She spent a good while attempting to climb the tree and slowly broke off small pieces to the ground below her, it was great to see and seeing how mother, father and cub are all living together is great.
I've attached several photos from my trip below, hope you guys enjoyed the blog - I'm off to Chester Zoo tomorrow. I may or may not get a blog up, dependent on active their two female tigers are, I'll see if there's much to write up.
Take it easy guys,
Jordan.
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