The Amur trail at Knowsley Safari Park...

I must apologise for the late blog upload as I visited Knowsley Safari Park in July 2018 with my good friend and carnivore keeper, James. I hadn't yet visited the collection since the opening of their brand new £1.4m Amur tiger exhibit, attached are some shots of the new exhibit.

The exhibit itself is excellent, well themed and detailed, the interpretation surrounding the exhibit is also something which I particularly enjoyed. Knowsley Safari Park currently house two female adult Amur tigers, Bira and Sinda who were both born on the 1st April 2008 at Port Lympne Wild Animal Park in Kent. The duo's parents are Ingrid who was born in Norway in 2003 and the ever popular Tugar, born in 1998 at the Port Lympne. Sadly, the big fella, Tugar is no longer around, however, Ingrid is still around and kicking as far as I am aware.

Previously, the two females were housed on a drive-pass enclosure up on the safari, next to the pride of lions, however, the two never really were seen by the public. I rarely saw them myself whenever I visited the Safari Park, so the addition of this large enclosure is very much welcomed. Bira and Sinda both arrived at the park on 25th November 2009 as two rather young tigers and have since transitioned into two beautiful tigers.

Bira is the more dominant of the two females, who often investigates the enrichment and food provided, whereas Sinda is the more playful and curious of the two. The two females have aside from their father, never met another male tiger, therefore, the addition of this huge enclosure will allow the arrival of a male when allocated by the EEP. Personally, I think it will be extremely interesting to see how two feisty females such as Sinda and Bira deal with a male, it certainly will be a challenge for those involved anyway.

The exhibit itself is housed in a large woodland part of the walk-around section of the park, the development took around two years to complete. It features a large pool which is situated in front of the huge glass viewing windows and also a small cave where you potentially can come nose to nose with the largest big cat on earth. The signage for me is brilliantly displayed, it features a wide range of issues which the Amur tiger faces in the wild and more importantly, a keeper checklist prior to entering the exhibit. This is hugely significant as it will almost certainly assist keepers working with the cats in follow the correct procedures.

The Amur trail looks set to be a huge success, the entire enclosure itself is split into two, one large exhibit featuring a large pool and a second, smaller enclosure which if breeding does occur, can turn into a small nursery den which is perfect for cub rearing. Overall, I really like the Amur trail at Knowsley Safari Park, it is well themed and detailed, however, if there's one thing which could be improved or added, would be the addition of some smaller exhibits around the enclosure. Personally, I am a huge fan of exhibits which display an echo-system, small bird species such as merganser or potential prey species such as wild boar or deer would be the perfect experience to show the public the life of a tiger in Russia.

This has been one of the more detailed blogs I have uploaded, though, I hope you all enjoy it - please leave a comment with what could potentially be improved. For me information regarding Knowsley Safari Park's pair of Amur tigers please follow the link here: https://www.knowsleysafariexperience.co.uk/explore/foot-safari/tiger-trail-map/tiger-trail/

Thanks all,
Jordan

The end of an era - Zambar...

As first reported last week by Blackpool Zoo on their social media sites, Zambar the Amur tiger who is an icon of the zoo sadly passed away. Zambar originally arrived in 2010 from Marwell Wildlife as a six year old male, he lived with Alyona from 2012 and they successfully produced two male cubs, Barney and Radzhi in 2014. Barney moved to, sadly, he died in November 2017 from cancer, his brother, Radzhi is still living (as far as I know!) happily, in Portugal at Zoo Santo Inacio with his offspring!

Zambar, was a huge male Amur tiger and he was extremely gentle when around his two cubs. Growing up at Marwell Wildlife, Zambar was hand-reared as his mother, Yenna sadly rejected him at birth and causing a hairline fracture to his leg. Zambar was actually introduced to an adult male tiger at a young age who took to him instantly and showed him how to be a tiger. Zambar was born on the 19th March 2004 so, he reached a very good age indeed.

The legacy of Zambar lives on though! His son, Radzhi has produced three cubs with Mila (incidentally, Mila is the name of my daughter who is due to be born on Christmas Eve!) named, Sneg (which means snow), Yuli (which means cute) and Zoya (which means life). I have thousands upon thousands of pictures of Zambar which I could include in this blog, but, I have selected a few which I think show him off in all his beauty. I could have wrote a huge post about him, but, to sum this blog, I want to say thank you to a tiger who has inspired a young boy to want to work with these glorious cats for the rest of his life.

Bawa, Menya and Surya!

Hullo all,

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.

A trip to Wales!

I'm back!

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.

Land of the Tigers at Yorkshire Wildlife Park - 6th June 2017.

Welcome back to Tigers Life!


It's been a while, however, I am back and pleased to provide another blog from my visit to one of the country's most exciting collections, Yorkshire Wildlife Park. Currently, Yorkshire Wildlife Park houses Amur tigers in their Land of the Tigers exhibit which was opened in 2011 just two years after the collection had originally opened to the public.


Currently, Yorkshire Wildlife Park has four Amur tigers in their collection, the first tiger to arrive was a male named Vladimir. He was born on the 11th May 2009 at Highland Wildlife Park in Scotland, his parents were Sasha, who was genetically very important as she was born at Moscow Zoo and her mother was a wild caught individual and Yuri, who was born in Germany at Duisburg Zoo. Vladmir was the first tiger to arrive at Yorkshire Wildlife Park in 2011, having arrived at just short of two years old, he was still quite a small male tiger. However, since his arrival over six years ago, he has since transformed into a very healthy and big adult male tiger.


The second tiger at Yorkshire Wildlife Park is Sayan, an adult female who lives with Vladimir for most of the time (I will come back to why they're not together 100% of the time). Sayan is the niece of Zambar at Blackpool Zoo as Zamb's sister, Nika is the mother of Sayan. Sayan arrived a few months after Vladimir, in May 2011, she was born on the 3rd August 2008 at Howletts Wild Animal Park in Kent. Sayan is easily identifiable as she is slightly cross-eyed, yesterday Sayan and Vladimir were in the right-hand side of Land of the Tigers otherwise known as the waterfall side. Sayan's father is Malchek, who unfortunately passed away several years ago, Nika and Malchek had three cubs in 2008, Sayan and her two brothers, Altay and Altai. Unfortunately, Altai was involved in an incident in Germany, Cologne Zoo, I believe where he had escaped and was shot dead a few years ago.


The third tiger at YWP is Tschuna! Going back to what I said earlier, the reason Vladimir and Sayan aren't together all the time is this lady. The studbook keeper recommended for Vladimir and Tschuna to breed, so when recommended to and when Tschuna is in season, the pair are introduced with the intention of producing offspring. Tschuna is a beautiful tigeress, she was born on the 22nd August 2010 at Wuppertal Zoo to Mymoza and Wassja. Unfortunately, her mother couldn't raise her, therefore she was hand-reared, luckily, Frankfurt Zoo had a Sumatran tigeress cub of a similar age which was being hand-reared, the Sumatran cub, Daseep was then moved to Wuppertal Zoo to be reared with Tschuna. In February 2012, the pair had made the move from Germany over to the West Midlands to move to Dudley Zoo. The pair continued to develop their tiger skills, learning who and what they are and what it takes to be an adult tigeress. On the 6th November 2013, the decision was made to move Tschuna to YWP to allow her to breed with Vladimir and for a new male Sumatran tiger to arrive at Dudley Zoo, thus ending the three year bond which these two females had.


The move to Yorkshire Wildlife Park went swimmingly and Tschuna has since settled in and become a very relaxed tigeress. So relaxed to the point that her and Vladimir had produced their first successful litter of cubs on the 29th March 2015. Two males and one female were born at Yorkshire Wildlife Park and were the first cubs born in history at the park. The cubs were then named Harley, Hector and Hope - raised successfully and splendidly by Tschuna, these three individuals then went onto becoming three successful individual tigers.


This then brings me onto Yorkshire Wildlife Park's fourth and final tiger, Hope who as mentioned above is the offspring of Tschuna and Vladimir. Hope is now separated from Tschuna as in the wild this would happen at around two years old anyway as the tension between mother and daughter over territory grows tremendously as the daughter grows older.


I enjoyed my visit to Yorkshire Wildlife Park yesterday, excluding the weather of course. The park was virtually empty with the exception of school visits, however, I spent most of my day with the tigers after a gander around the park. It was very interesting to see Hope on her own and now a lot bigger than my previous visit in August 2016, she was certainly growing into a beautiful tigeress, even though, she occasionally startled herself and that resulted in her falling over. Hope was in the nursery enclosure as she awaits to be moved to another zoo to continue her bloodline. I witnessed Tschuna stalking her numerous times and waiting in a small bush next to her pool before startling Hope again. Tschuna and Sayan actually spent a lot of time interacting through the fence during my time there. Vladimir was more interested in the keepers and eland, though, headed up to the fence quite a few times to check me out. He was pacing his territory and then spent the majority of the time sleeping on the platform, just to the right of the waterfall with Sayan. Tschuna and Hope spent the vast amount of the day watching each other and stalking each other.


That's it for today, folks - let me know what you thought of the blog below; any feedback is highly appreciated. I plan on heading to Blackpool Zoo on Saturday to catch up on Ally and Zamb.

Thanks again guys,
Jordan.

Rosa King

QUICK POST ALERT - Rosa King.


As many of you are aware, unfortunately yesterday, on the 29th May 2017 a rather sad incident took place at Hamerton Zoo Park. A serious incident took place involving a tiger of which is unconfirmed, and a keeper, resulting in the unfortunate death of a female keeper. Last night, this was confirmed as Rosa King, I never spoke to Rosa in person, however, I spoke to her on social media about tigers and felids in general. She was always extremely polite and would also be available to answer any questions about tigers and the animals in her care. I have seen many photographs on social media with cheetahs and the great, Sir David Attenborough.


My thoughts are with Hamerton Zoo Park, Rosa's colleagues, friends and family. Rest in peace, Rosa King.

Stripes on the move!

Welcome back to Tigers Life,


Firstly, what a busy couple of weeks it has been in Europe with the arrivals and departures of some very important tigers, from the Amur and Sumatran tigers. As such I decided to update the Blog on these moves.


So, starting from the beginning - A Sumatran tiger move will start us off, 'Vanni' the male at Terra Natura Benidorm moved from Spain over to Germany and arrived at Frankfurt Zoo where he will join 'Malea' (The mother of 'Asum', 'Berani', 'Daseep' and 'Taru') which I believe is for companionship as 'Malea' is a very well represented female having produced for cubs and the fact she is now approaching the age of sixteen years old. The addition of 'Vanni' now means Terra Natura Benidorm only house hybrid Bengal tigers, as the other female 'Keisha' has since left for elsewhere in Europe. I have seen 'Vanni' at Terra Natura Benidorm in 2014, he has a very large face from what I can remember and spent a significant amount of time in the (small) pool during his time at Terra Natura Benidorm. Now, some of the photos of him arriving at Frankfurt Zoo made me chuckle as he looks extremely content and chilled out upon his arrival! Looking forward to seeing what Frankfurt Zoo plan on doing long term with him!


The next move occurred today, with the arrival of a new female tigeress at Colchester. Amur tiger, 'Taiga' arrived today from Kristiansand Zoo. 'Taiga' was born on the 17th May 2013 to 'Boonya' and 'Ulysses', some of you could be familiar with the collection above. It is a Norwegian collection where 'Ingrid' (At Port Lympne Wild Animal Park) was born back on the 16th December 2003). I was thrilled to read that 'Taiga' has some royalty in her bloodline, her grandmother came from Novosibirsk Zoo, so genetically important! 'Taiga' is the offspring of 'Ulysses' who is the father of 'Ingrid', therefore, making them half-sisters. Very pleasing to hear that 'Taiga' arriving means that possible breeding plans with 'Igor' can now begin to take place now!


The other move today was 'Pan' at Wildlife Heritage Foundation in Kent, he moved to Eberswalde Zoo in Germany. The move was supposedly planned for a long time, 'Pan' is described as a very tall and pretty Amur tiger from various people who have seen in the flesh. During his time at WHF, 'Pan' sired three successful cubs, all females which was a surprise. Two of his daughters are now at Paradise Wildlife Park, the sister park to WHF, whilst his remaining daughter still lives at the park, now unfortunately alone as her mother, 'Ronja' passed quite recently.


Thanks all for reading, it's not a long Blog, but a quick update on some moves, in and around Europe. Thanks for reading, keep an eye out for more Blogs.


Photos courtesy of Zoo Frankfurt of 'Vanni'.