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Zoo News
Highland Wildlife Park welcomes a trio of tiger tots!
16 June 2009
Following the arrival of a pair of rare Amur tigers, the Highland Wildlife Park in Kingussie, near Aviemore, is delighted to announce that they now have three tiger cubs.
Yuri and Sasha, the parent tigers, arrived from Edinburgh Zoo in September last year and quickly settled into their new Highland home. They are already extremely experienced parents, having successfully reared six cubs.
With only 500 Amur tigers remaining in the wild, these arrivals are a welcome addition to the European breeding programme, which acts as a safety-net against extinction and as conservation ambassadors for their counterparts in the wild.
The three new arrivals were born on 11 May. As they are still quite young, keepers won’t be able to sex or name them for another few weeks. Staff at the Park have been keeping a close eye on them since they were born and all cubs are in excellent health and are ready to start exploring their outside enclosure.
Douglas Richardson, Animal Collection Manager at the Highland Wildlife Park said:
“The birth and rearing of these tiger cubs is further proof that Yuri and Sasha have settled into their new home. The cubs will be an obvious attraction for visitors to the Park, but more importantly they will further enable us to highlight key conservation messages about the plight of tigers and other species, like the Scottish wildcat, that are under severe pressure in the wild."
Editor’s Notes
About Amur Tigers
- Previously known as Siberian tigers, the Amur tiger was renamed in the 1990’s as the last tigers had long since disappeared from Siberia. They are now found only in isolated populations around the Amur River valley in the far east of Russia, hence their new name.
- It is estimated that there are around 500 Amur tigers remaining in the wild.
- Although the wild population of Amur tigers is healthier now than it has been since before World War II, a high level of protection is still required. Extinction is still a serious threat due to poaching for Chinese traditional medicine, hunting of its prey species and habitat loss.
- The Amur tiger is the largest of all the big cats. Amur tigers have excellent vision, they see in colour, to some degree, and their night vision is five times better than humans.
- Yuri and Sasha have successfully reared two sets of cubs at Edinburgh Zoo. They had three in 2000 and another three in 2003.
About Highland Wildlife Park
- Until recently, the Highland Wildlife Park’s animal collection contained species representing Scotland’s past and present such as Scottish wildcats and European wolves. The expanded new collection includes many of its existing animals but has been widened to include animals from mountain and tundra habitats from around the world.
- The planned re-development is expected to take three to five years and it is hoped that the increase in visitor numbers will help fund conservation work in the wild, both in Scotland and further afield.
- The Highland Wildlife Park is owned by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland which also owns Edinburgh Zoo.
- RZSS was founded by visionary lawyer Thomas Gillespie. The Society was set up in 1909 ‘to promote, facilitate and encourage the study of zoology and kindred subjects and to foster and develop amongst the people an interest in and knowledge of animal life’. The Society celebrates its centenary this year.
- The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland is a registered charity, charity no SC004064.