Melati; 2008-2019

Hello all,

This post as the title suggests, is not one that I wanted to post, however, such is the case - Melati the Sumatran tigeress at ZSL London Zoo has died after her introduction to new male, Asim went horribly wrong. Asim only arrived in late January from Ree Park in Denmark, though, this morning (08/02/19) introductions with resident female at ZSL London Zoo, Melati ended in awful circumstances.

Asim has bred with a female before, however, he has shown an aggression towards a female in the past, which resulted in him being moved from Heidelberg Zoo in Germany to Ree Park in Denmark. A sad day for the staff down at ZSL London Zoo, though, a constant reminder at just how unpredictable tigers are. The introductions from the release from ZSL London state that before the introduction, the pair were looking promising.

Melati arrived in late September 2012 from Perth Zoo in Australia and was quickly joined by the handsome Jae Jae from America and the pair quickly produced a single cub, which sadly drowned when Melati came outside with her cub very early on and the pool was not drained. Though, it should be noted that first time mothers producing single cubs often do not rear them successfully.

On the 3rd February 2014, ZSL London Zoo welcomed the arrival of three healthy Sumatran tiger cubs. Two boys, Budi and Nakal were joined by their sister, Cinta to parents, Melati and Jae Jae. Melati did a very good job of rearing her cubs and the two boys now live in Wales and Bewdley, though, when I was last at West Midlands Safari Park in 2016, Budi was bloody terrified of Hujan! Hopefully with growth and maturity, he has since put her in her place.

In February 2016, Melati and Jae Jae successfully welcomed two more cubs to their bloodline in the form of Achilles and Karis. The duo again were raised by their two fantastic parents and moved to Howletts Wild Animal Park and Heidelberg Zoo respectively.

Melati was a stunning tiger with a very beautiful face with stunning markings, her legacy lives on through her five cubs. ZSL London Zoo had very bad luck throughout the years with their tigers, with this setback, hopefully, that is all it is and they will continue with their breeding success and working with these awesome cats in both in-situ and ex-situ.

Thanks for the read again folks - three blogs up this year already. I do hope to provide more blogs conservation wise as well as the captive side.

See you all soon!
Jordan