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

Runaway otter home safe at last

Fugitive otter Jin has been captured on Motutapu Island in Auckland's Hauraki Gulf.

A Department of Conservation spokesman said the short-clawed Asiatic otter, which escaped from Auckland Zoo on June 13, had been recovered safely in a trap.

The otter had earlier been sighted at Devonport, and Rangitoto Island.

The otter was being returned to the zoo today.

Zoo spokeswoman Jane Healy said the otter was spotted by a yachtie yesterday as he sailed past Rangitoto Island.

Traps had already been laid in Islington Bay on Rangitoto and extra food was put out after the sighting yesterday, she said.

Department of Conservation staff found the otter in one of the traps today.

Ms Healy said the otter would have been in the trap overnight.

She was being brought back to the zoo for a check by a veterinarian.

"She is in pretty good shape. But obviously she will be a little worse for the wear for being out there but she is in pretty good shape."

Jin and two other otters escaped from a new compound in the middle of last month. The other otters were caught but Jin was believed to have swum down a creek and into Auckland's Waitemata Harbour.

She crossed the harbour and made her way to Devonport, around North Head and up to Cheltenham Beach.

She crossed the busy shipping channel to Rangitoto Island where she was spotted late last month but then swam back and was seen at Narrowneck on the Takapuna side of the gulf.

She swam back to Rangitoto where traps had been laid before she was caught overnight.

Zoo staff were worried about her because she had been bred in captivity, and being out in the wild was a new experience.

However, they said she seemed to be getting good food.

- HERALD STAFF, NZPA

Auckland gets its own star ape attraction

A big ape might have hogged the limelight in Wellington yesterday but the real thing is about to take up a starring role at Auckland Zoo.

Baby Bornean orang-utan Madju is just over a month old and slowly stepping into the public eye by spending longer periods in an outdoor enclosure with mother Melur.

The mother-baby bond in great apes, which share 97 per cent of their genetic make-up with humans, was "breathtakingly human-like", said zoo curator Maria Finnigan.

"She looks at him adoringly, like any proud and doting mother."

But the zoo took no chances on motherhood being too much for Melur, whose first baby died soon after birth in 2002. The 17-year-old attended "antenatal classes" which included a video of female orang-utans with their babies and a visit from a woman who was breastfeeding a baby.

While the birth of Madju was something to celebrate, the outlook for the family of endangered great apes was bleak, Ms Finnigan said.

"The fact that almost 90 per cent of both Bornean and Sumatran orang-utan habitat has been decimated by illegal logging and the growth of palm oil plantations is anything but positive," she said.

"It's an appalling situation.

"But with the right intentions and actions we don't have to see this magnificent species go extinct in our lifetime."

Orang-utans are found only on the part-Malaysian island of Borneo and on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Malaysia and Indonesia are the world's largest exporters of palm oil.

Used in everything from margarine to beauty products, palm oil is predicted to become the world's most traded edible oil by 2012.

The destruction of forest to make way for palm plantations has pushed the Sumatran orang-utan to the brink of extinction. With only about 7000 left, conservationists fear it could be gone from the wild in 20 years.

Bornean orang-utans number between 12,000 and 20,000 and are listed as endangered by the World Conservation Union.

Fully grown, Madju is likely to weigh around 90kg and reach a height of around 1.4m (4 ft).

Great ape

* Orang-utans bend tree branches to make nest-like platforms to sleep on.
* They are the largest tree-living mammal in the world.
* In dry periods, they chew leaves into a sponge and use it to soak up water from tree cavities.

From the Herald.