28 October 2009

Sumatran Tiger Debuts At Belfast Zoo

Belfast Zoo has this week presented the first Sumatran tiger to come to the city, writes Carla Liébana.

Just weeks after it arrived from Chessington Zoo, Kabus, a young male Sumatran tiger specimen, met his public for the first time yesterday morning.

The 19-month-old tiger (pictured) walked around his paddock searching for the meat that keepers spread on the 2,000 sq mt grassy area at Belfast Zoo, which also has a water moat and three wooden raised platforms for exercise and sleeping.

More than 40 people - mainly children - were waiting for his appearance - with camera in one hand and an umbrella in the other - as it was such a rainy morning.

The area was decorated with garlands and balloons and the visitors welcomed Kabus - many wearing tiger masks that the zoo staff had previously handed out as part of the celebration.

Curator Julie Mansell said it was a privilege to be caring for Kabus, "a young, healthy, feisty, and curious big cat who displays great characteristics of prowling and stalking".

Since the death of popular duo Jack and Jill, the zoo had been planning for the arrival of new tigers.

Now, their paddock is taken up by Kabus, which is rapidly getting used to his new surroundings.

After the initiation of a global Sumatran tiger 'studbook' in 1967, Kabus is the first to live in Belfast as part of this innovative European breeding programme.

Belfast Zoo manager, Mark Challis, was delighted to take part of this project that allows zoos "to embrace their vital role as conservation centres".

Next year, the zoo expects a female Sumatran tiger from Fuengirola (Spain) to join Kabus.

This paring will allow the continuity of the successful programme that began six years ago with Kabus' own mother - Ratna - being born in Dublin Zoo.

Ratna was born in Dublin but later was transferred to Chessington. There, she met a tiger from Berlin called Batu and on 20 February 2008, Kabus and his sister Kelabu were born.

Kabus means grey in Malay and Kelabu, misty. They were named in this way after the grey and misty morning of their birth - not unlike the day of Kabus' first official apeparance in Belfast.

The Sumatran tiger is an endangered species: there are less than 500 left in the wild, and only 250 in zoos worldwide.

Although law protects them, they have to face the threat of habitat loss, hunting and poaching.

(CL/BMcC)