Tentative Tiger Matchmaking

A careful courtship at Auckland Zoo started yesterday, but the two Sumatran tigers at the centre of it were sleepily unaware of all the fuss - and each other.

New male Oz is being introduced to his intended, six-year-old Molek, who arrived from Hamilton Zoo on Tuesday.

It is the zoo's first attempt at tiger breeding.

"Putting them together will be a fraught day," said zoo veterinarian John Potter. "Tigers are not always friendly to each other."

Molek made her first foray into the open after keeping an eager crowd waiting for more than two hours.

She poked her nose out of her den, took a slow and slinky walk around and went back inside.

If Oz noticed from next-door, he gave no sign. The 22-month-old male, who arrived from Tel Aviv Zoo last month, snoozed at the farthest end of his enclosure.

Over the next few weeks Molek will be settled in and might manage to attract Oz's attention with a growl or two. A tiger's roar can be heard up to two kilometres away.

But he is the one who will have to make all the moves, as zoo staff get him used to a crate on wheels which will then be rolled into her den area for a few hours at a time.

The next step is to let Oz out of the crate while a a wire mesh separates the pair.

That is when staff will get their best chance to assess the chances of romance.

"We'll be looking for any signs of aggressive behaviour," said zoo curator Brooke Noonan, "but it's an exciting time, slowly getting them together."

If all goes well, Molek will roll around and rub her face against the wire when Oz comes to visit. The best time to give the two an opportunity to mate is at the beginning of her cycle.

"When she's ovulating obviously she'll be more receptive to him," Ms Noonan said.

When the two are put together, staff will have fire extinguishers at the ready.

"You just need anything that makes a noise," she said. 'We won't actually use them on the tigers."

Rare breed

* Sumatran tigers are critically endangered - fewer than 400 are thought to be left in the wild

* Through its tiger programme, Auckland Zoo is financially supporting the Kerinci Seblat National Park tiger conservation project in south-east Asia

~NZ Herald

New White Tiger Cubs!

Must get up to Whangarei at some stage to see them!!



The birth of three white tiger cubs in Whangarei has boosted the animal's fragile numbers worldwide - and helped save a fellow feline in the process.

The latest litter of royal white Bengal tigers at the Zion Wildlife Gardens run by "Lion Man" Craig Busch is crucial because the cats have been extinct in the wild since 1958, and only 120 survive in captivity worldwide.

With the three latest additions, Mr Busch now has seven in his Northland sanctuary.

He said two of the as-yet-unnamed cubs would be sent to a reserve at the Cradle of Humankind, a world heritage site in South Africa. The other cub would be kept at Zion for its breeding programme.

Sending the cubs will complete an agreement Mr Busch had with the South African reserve to exchange four white tigers with four white lions, which are a similarly endangered species.

Tigress Rewa's first litter of two are already in Africa, and her second litter of two males and a female, born on October 2, are doing well.

The cubs now weigh an average of 5.5kg, up from a birth weight of just 1.2kg. They are suckled and bottle-fed at the moment, but Mr Busch expects them to graduate to solids such as chicken in a fortnight.

Unlike the first birth, where Rewa rejected her cubs - quite common among first litters - "this time she was the best mother in the park".

Royal whites are a subspecies of India's Bengal tiger. A double recessive gene causes the animal's striking coloration of cinnamon stripes, blue eyes and pink noses.

Mr Busch said the public would be able to see the litter in a week's time, and the cubs would also have names by then.

The Whangarei big cat sanctuary is now home to the southernmost pride of white tigers and lions. The four white lions will play a vital role in the sanctuary's breeding programme, and for breeding programmes worldwide.

The lions originate in Southern Africa's Timbavati region, although, like white tigers, none exist any more in the wild.

The animal is not an albino nor a subspecies, but an African tawny lion with a recessive gene. Mr Busch said its origins were shrouded in mystery.

"It's always been a legend or myth - no one ever thought they were real. It's quite a big thing, really. In the African eye, the white lion is the most spiritual of all of Africa - a sacred animal, I should say."

Mr Busch said many people worldwide were trying to preserve these endangered creatures.

"The biggest thing is to teach people what's going wrong in the world. It's what we're here for."

From the Herald.