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TWO TIGER CUBS BORN AT PORT LYMPNE WILD ANIMAL PAR
Port Lympne Wild Animal Park is celebrating the birth of two critically endangered tiger cubs born this month to Siberian tigers, Ingrid and Tugar. Born in Norway in December 2003, Ingrid arrived at Port Lympne just three years ago and joined her mate, Tug, who will be ten in September. The cubs were born following a gestation of three and a half months. Tigers are generally solitary animals but the cubs will spend their first two years with their mother. In the wild, they would occasionally meet up with their father and share kills. Unlike many zoos, Port Lympne and Howletts leaves the male together with is mate throughout the birth and rearing of the cubs.
The Siberian or Amur tiger (panthera tigris altaica) is found in the far eastern reaches of the Asian continent as its name suggests in Siberia around the amur river, it has a thick winter coat making it appear very stocky. The largest of all cats and powerfully built with fierce retractile claws it hunts mainly boar and deer and has even been known to kill bears, the tiger�s gold colouring with black stripes is typical of all tigers but Siberians also have very white underbellies which allows it to melt unseen into its environment. Their stripes are like human fingerprints with no two tigers having the same pattern of stripes. With an estimated 500 -700 of this species in the wild there are actually more in captivity. A large male Amur tiger may weigh 250 kilos with some recorded specimens over 300 kilos and measure up to 2.8m in length excluding its tail which can reach 95 centimetres. When born, cubs weigh in at just a few kilos and are less than 30 centimetres long. ENDS May 2008 Press Information: Tricia Corkhill 01303 234134 / 07989 858973
Notes to Editors: Threatened by habitat loss and poaching, wild tigers could be extinct within a decade. Until the 1950s there were eight sub species of tigers. Of these three are now extinct with the others critically endangered. With people keen to pay high prices for tiger body parts because of their supposed medicinal value, the eradication of hunting is very difficult. The Aspinall Foundation is a UK-based charity devoted to saving rare and endangered species and returning them to protected areas in the wild. The charity supports and manages the Howletts and Port Lympne Wildlife Parks in Kent, but believes that saving animals in captivity is not enough. To this end, it operates a world renowned captive breeding programme at the parks and supports a number of conservation activities worldwide to preserve and restore wild populations with the ultimate survival of the species the absolute priority. Occupying the top of the food chain, tigers eat almost anything they can catch but nothing eats the tiger. A strict carnivore, tigers hunt primarily by sight and sound. Without their preferred food, ungulates (hoofed animals such as deer and wild pigs), tiger populations cannot remain healthy. Tigers are fed twice weekly at Port Lympne, mimicking their hunting success in the wild and feeding habits, tending to consume large quantities of meat in one sitting, but stay near to their kill until it has been consumed after which they will sleep it off before hunting again. A tiger�s typical diet at the parks include either the front or back leg of a horse, a side of ribs or a few rabbits or chickens. Photographs to be credited to Dave Rolfe.tiger cubs, tigers, siberian tiger, baby tigers, siberian tigers, tiger cub, endangered, endangered species, wild, wildlife |
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| Howletts and Port Lympne wild animal park and gardens | The Aspinall Foundation | |
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