I must apologise for no blog in a few months, due to university, work and being a dad, the blog has not been kept up to date. However, that does mean I have lots of content ready to upload, starting with our trip to Berlin, which was incredible. We spent three days in Germany, visiting Berlin Zoo and their Aquarium, as well as a trip to the Tierpark. The entire Berlin collections blew my mind, with so many species in one place, from Southern gerenuk to Arabian striped hyena. We were accompanied on our Berlin quest by a German friend who was also our translator in parts and gave us a lovely tour of one of Europe's most iconic collections. Thankfully, Berlin Tierpark has a long history of breeding tigers, the zoo itself doesn't hold any tiger, but, this is made up by the Tierpark housing three different species of tiger, the Amur, Malayan and Sumatran.
The Sumatran tigers at Berlin Tierpark are actually extremely important with the adult pair, Harfan and Mayang were actually born in two zoos in Indonesia, where the Sumatran tiger originates from. The pair were imported on the 23rd December 2013, and this therefore makes them genetically important in the gene pool of the European population of Sumatran tigers. Harfan, the adult male was born in 2008, sadly, on our visit we didn't see him as the Alfred Bruhr house where the Tierparks cool species (Tigers, leopard, etc) were held, though, this was closed as the entire house is due for revamption and a new house is due to open in 2020. We did however, come across the female, Mayang who was born in 2011, she was accompanied by her four cubs, Kiara, Seri, Willi and Oscar, who were the first successful litter born to the pair on the 4th August 2018.
As previously mentioned, the Tierpark has a tremendous track record with their Sumatran tiger, they previously held Morris, a breeding male who had a lot of success with the females and died in January 2009 at the age of twenty-two. Morris sired several offspring including;
- Shakira - now at Paignton Zoo.
- Sarah - now deceased; died at Dudley Zoo.
- Alesha - now deceased; died at South Lakes Safari Zoo.
- Soroya - moved to Australia.
- Malea - now at Frankfurt Zoo.
- Raika - now deceased; died at Big Cat Sanctuary.
- Timophi - now deceased; died at Zoo Heidelberg.
- Batu - now at Aalborg Zoo.
- Nias - now at Big Cat Sanctuary.
- Carlos - now at Stuttgart Zoo.
Morris, therefore, contributed significantly to the European population of Sumatran tiger. This can still be seen today with his grandchildren being housed right in-front of our eyes with tigers such as Daseep at Dudley Zoo and Lucu at Paignton Zoo.
I enjoyed the big cat collection at Tierpark, though, I can understand why the upgrade is needed for the Alfred Bruhr house. Mayang, spent the day outside with her four cubs, who were marvellous to watch, enhancing their play behaviours and stalking mum whenever the opportunity came. As we arrived at the enclosure, the group had just been feeding, therefore, giving us the perfect opportunity to watch the cubs in their full glory. Mayang must be doing a grand job as having four enthusiastic cubs to rear is some task indeed. We headed back to the enclosure towards the end of the day to find the cubs still fascinated with each other and saw some fantastic interactions between the four of them and mum.
Berlin Tierpark also houses Amur and Malayan tigers as previously mentioned, these two species of tiger rotate their outdoor enclosure. I have never actually seen a Malayan tiger, so I was desperate to see one and did I? You're damn right, I didn't. The Malayan tigers, Tarek and Sarai were actually off-show that day and were not rotated with the adult pair of Amur tigers, sadly. I was so close to seeing a Malayan tiger, yet, so far!
To make it for my disappointment of not seeing any Malayan tigers, we spent a large portion of our time with the Amur tigers. The Tierpark has a breeding pair, Darius and Aurora, who have had litters in 2014 and 2015, one tiger from this litter, Alisha was born on 10th December 2014 now lives at Dartmoor Zoo with Dragan (Born on 7th October 2014 at Eberswalde to Eva and Festus).
Darius, is a typical male Amur tiger, with a large head and big shoulders. He instantly stood out to me as a very nice looking tiger, Aurora was obviously smaller and more petite. The pair were not as active as the Sumatran family next door, but, as the evening started to draw nearer, the duo became more active to which, Darius started stalking myself and Katelynne.
Berlin overall, was a huge success, aside from the disappointment of not seeing the Malayan tigers among a few other species (echidna and Javan leopard) but, this just means we must return to Berlin in the future once their new tropical hall house has been built to see the previously missed species.
That is all for now folks, I have quite a few blogs coming up so do indeed stay tuned!
Thanks again,
Jordan
