Port Lympne Wild Animal Park Howletts and Port Lympne Tigers. Current Status

Hexaprotodon

Hexaprotodon

Well-Known Member
Hi Everyone,

Does anybody know how many tigers are currently held at Howletts and Port Lympne??

I know that three Siberian (Amur) Tiger cubs were born, to parents Malchek and Nika at Howletts. Two of the cubs are males, named Altai and Altay, the third is female and named Sayan. At Port Lympne there has been success with their Amur Tigers too. Tug and Ingrid are rearing twin female cubs.

There are some Sumatrans at Howletts as well, but I don't know how many. There must also be some hybrid 'Indian' tigers from the early days shared between the 2 parks, again I'm not sure how many.

Thanks for any up to date info,

PJ
 
Howletts has a young pair of Sumatrans which they hope to breed from next year - from 'Roar' . ISIS lists 3.2 Bengal tiger at Howletts and 2.0 at Port Lympne , these being the older 'hybrid' animals .

The latest series of 'Roar' featured the birth and rearing of the 2 female Siberian tiger cubs with lots of reports on their development , with the most impressive Tug and Ingrid they make a lovely family .

On another topic related to Howletts , ISIS no longer lists the giant anteaters and tamandua . I know they were owned by nearby RSSC and wonder if they have been transferred there . I also wonder where the young male giant anteater born at Howletts last year went to . Anybody help ?
 
Thanks Bele,

It would seem that Port Lympne is concentrating on 'Barbary' lions rather than Tigers these days. I did hear that they were going into South China Tigers a few years ago, but this seems to have come to nothing.
 
I'm sure that Port Lympne only have one breeding pair of lion (Solomon and Safina) who have had a few litters of cubs, as for the others, i presume they are over represented. ISIS lists 4 males and 8 females. I think they may need a new male bringing in soon?
 
The breeding male barbary lion has been sterilised . He then lost most of his mane , so they were going to put him on hormone treatment . Also one of the old females has developed a mane of sorts , they thought that this was due to a hormone imbalance , such as very old ladies with moustaches ! These stories featured on 'Roar' .
 
Went to Port Lympne in august and saw the two tiger cubs - Cute!! Where abouts are the breeding pair located in the park?

James
 
Paulkarli08 said:
I'm sure that Port Lympne only have one breeding pair of lion (Solomon and Safina) who have had a few litters of cubs, as for the others, i presume they are over represented. ISIS lists 4 males and 8 females. I think they may need a new male bringing in soon?
Click to expand...

The breeding pair are Suliman(from Rabat Zoo, Morocco) and Safira(born at Port Lympne(Kabir x Jade) ) They have had three successful litters that I know of (1,3,& 2 cubs) All the lions there are closely related to each other except Suliman and a younger male Jabir which I think also came from Rabat Zoo. But Port Lympne's first Barbary Lions which came from Washington also originated from Rabat Zoo so they are all essentially from one and the same source.
 
There are 2 Inidian Tigers at Port Lympne Living next door to the Main Barbary Lion group are they females or males? the two are definately same gender though.
 
Also is Jabir part of a breeding programme? dont remember hearing about any cubs i have seen him on roar with a mane but when i saw him in may 2008 and he didnt have one at all? I wouldnt think he would of been Castrated as Suliman just has been? leaving no mature pairs?
Any news
Thanks
 
Riziki said:
Also is Jabir part of a breeding programme? dont remember hearing about any cubs i have seen him on roar with a mane but when i saw him in may 2008 and he didnt have one at all? I wouldnt think he would of been Castrated as Suliman just has been? leaving no mature pairs?
Any news
Thanks
Click to expand...

In October the Barbary Lions at Port Lympne were kept as follows;

One pair at top end of park near African Experience departure area. Male Jabir and and older female born in the past at PL (name like Luka?) Jabir was originally obtained as a partner for Samira, the first born female cub of Suliman & Saffie but they were split up as they didn't get on. Jabir has a thin light mane and doesn't resemble a Barbary in my opinion- but Rabat lions have been proven not to be from North Africa anyway.. As far as I know he has not been castrated.

Two part grown males from another litter of Suliman & Saffie (Moonlight & Milo) live together in an enclosure in the Pine wooded area.
Two old sisters bred in the same litter at PL (Jade and Juma) live in the upper enclosure on the slope near the Hunting Dogs. Jade is the mother of Saffie. I think the 3rd female Luka(?) mentioned above is also a sister of theirs.

In the large bottom enclosure with glass windows are the ex-breeding pair Suliman & Saffie, plus the female cub of their last litter(Savanah) and two more recent cubs. Next door is their crippled daughter Samira, the first cub of recent breeding who suffered a damaged nerve in her foreleg and was handreared. She still can't use one forelimb properly.
Three other cubs from another litter were sent to Belfast Zoo too.
From other information on this thread it seems with a current total of Twelve Lions Port Lympne have decided to stop breeding any more at present.
 
Thanks for that information it hasnt changed sice My last visit in May.Do you think they will start breeding their tigers know as they have stopped their barabry breeding for the moment? They only have 2 Indian females and Tug and ingrid with 2 cubs (Amur) Do you think more tigers willbe added.
 
Riziki said:
Thanks for that information it hasnt changed sice My last visit in May.Do you think they will start breeding their tigers know as they have stopped their barabry breeding for the moment? They only have 2 Indian females and Tug and ingrid with 2 cubs (Amur) Do you think more tigers willbe added.
Click to expand...

I don't know anything about their Tiger breeding. I did see the recent Siberian cubs plus the Sumatran Tiger pair at Howletts- both their enclosures are near each other. There seem a lot less Tigers at both parks than there used to be though.
 
Both Parks stopped there breeding of tigers due to 'overpopulation' about 12 years ago and breeding has just started again with Siberians and Sumatrans. Can you breed Indians now? or are they only for education purposes?
 
Riziki said:
Both Parks stopped there breeding of tigers due to 'overpopulation' about 12 years ago and breeding has just started again with Siberians and Sumatrans. Can you breed Indians now? or are they only for education purposes?
Click to expand...

There are no purebred Indian tigers at Howletts/Pl, or in the UK or anywhere else outside India as far as I know. The last pure bred Indian tigers in the UK were the 1970's Bristol white ones.

Port Lympne have been through two breeding phases with the lions too. The first time was with the ones they imported from Washington. Then they put them on contraceptives. When they wanted to breed from them again, the females didn't concieve for a long time, until finally Safira (Kabir x Jade) was born. Now after several litters from Safira, they seem to be preventing anymore breeding again. These lions aren't pure Barbary anyway so its largely a waste of time...
 
Thanks for the info shame about the Indian Tigers more zoos seem to be specialising in Sumatrans and Amur the Indians seem to of been a bit left behind.The only ones that are being bred are the White ones but they are all descended from one individual Mohan so that cant be very good geneticly atall?
 
Space allocation and IUCN catergories play an important part in current coop endangered species management in Europe. I suppose the hybrid Bengal tigers are all on "phase out". Both Sumatrans (275-350) and Siberians (450-550) are technically speaking more critically endangered than the Bengal tiger ... but admit it is rather a numbers game (1300-1400 for Bengals)

However, I seem to remember reading that the EEP breeding policy is/ remains that Bengal tiger will be raised to full EEP level once pure-bred stock can be sourced from Indian zoos. The absorption of 85-100 Indian zoos in the ISIS network as from 1/1/2009 makes this far more likely in the not too distant future! :D
 
Thankyou for the info thats good :) Allways liked bengals and hopfully purebreds will come come back into zoos.:)
 
jelle said:
the EEP breeding policy is/ remains that Bengal tiger will be raised to full EEP level once pure-bred stock can be sourced from Indian zoos. The absorption of 85-100 Indian zoos in the ISIS network as from 1/1/2009 makes this far more likely in the not too distant future! :D
Click to expand...

That is good news. I hope some reach one or two of our UK zoos where there have been none for around thirty years now.
 
Howletts claim to have three indian tigers. 1 male and 2 female sisters. The two tigers at PL near the lions are purebred brothers named Delhi and Calcutta. Before Samira was moved to her current enclosure, she had fallen pregnant and given birth, however the cubs were stillborn, she became pregnant again, seems she lost them again. Info sourced from head of section.
 
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