Perth Zoo Sumatran tiger move

MARK

MARK

Well-Known Member
The Male Sumatran tiger from the Mareeba zoo near Cairns is now on breeding loan at the Perth zoo for a while, I think this male was imported from the UK some time ago and maybe unrelated to the bloodlines here, lets hope they do breed :)
 
its good to see the very valuable mareeba animals entering the mainstream population. it seems perth has been lucky to be associated with mareeba so well. i am guessing because of earlier dealins, eg) perths bears and some primates went to the zoo orginally.
 
What happened to Dumai the handraised male from Germany?
he supposed to breed with Setia, but i guess that never eventuated, hence the importation of Hari?
 
kelvin said:
What happened to Dumai the handraised male from Germany?
he supposed to breed with Setia, but i guess that never eventuated, hence the importation of Hari?
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Was wondering this myself :confused:. Anyone know?
 
thats good news, Tigers are awesome cats. I'm curious i know Sumatran tigers have been bred in australia quite well, but have bengal tigers been successfully bred anywhere else other than dreamworld?
 
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dragon(ele)nerd said:
thats good news, Tigers are awesome cats. I'm curious i know Sumatran tigers have been bred in australia quite well, but have they been successfully bred anywhere else other than dreamworld?
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I was under the impression that Taronga, Melbourne and Perth have all had (poss. multiple) litters.
 
dragon(ele)nerd said:
oh sorry my bad, ;)
I meant Bengal tigers.
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the so called "bengal" tigers in australia are all - to my knowledge - actually bengal/siberian hybrids, the with genetics in favour of the former.

this situation is reflected all over the world with pure bengals, the most common of the tiger subspecies in the wild, ironically being one of the rarest in captivity outside of india.

this is all thanks to impure white tigers, and them being mixed in with the US bengal population that was then transferred all over the world.

however, many, many zoos and circus' have bred "bengals" in australia in the past, and most recently a number of animals were bred for australia zoo by the bullens family.
 
thank phoenix, interesting fact. I do notice though that Bengals in zoos don't develop the short "mane" I've seen in documenteries in wild bengals. I think Sumatrans are the only subspecies in that big males develop.
Siberians lack this trait so due to the inbreeding its been less notiable in captivity.

I find it really interesting that there are almost twice as many captive siberians than wild ones.
 
really?

see i would characterise a bengal as having a very short coat by comparison to other races. the pure siberians that i have seen were, apart from being enormous (and i do mean ENORMOUS) quite long coated (and pale. they also have a distinctively bulky face).

however - its probably unwise to ID a tiger based on coat length as it is highly variable and influenced by local climate. i have read that many bengals in the US have longer than usual coats - a nod to their part siberian ancestry. i think it might have just as much to do with the fact that many of these tigers live in cooler climes.

put a siberian tiger in the tropics and you'll probably find it moults...
 
yes, sorry i do know what you are saying. i mean that the "mane" being part of the animals coat, is likely to be highly variable.

i gotta be honest that i consider myself pretty observant - since i am a artist, but if you gave me photos of a bunch of captive tigers of varying ages, races and local climates and told me to divide them by subspecies, i'd probably make a few mistakes...
 
phoenix said:
this is all thanks to impure white tigers, and them being mixed in with the US bengal population that was then transferred all over the world.
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I don't think the situation with Indian Tigers (I don't use the term 'Bengal' as its a misnomer) is entirely due to the 'White Tiger factor'. There were plenty of tigers of mixed ancestry and crossbreeding before White Tigers were exported from India, and some of those lines have continued into the present, not necessarily due to any involvement with White tigers(e.g. Howletts in the UK has had many impure 'Indian' tigers, but have never had White Tigers in their collection and the same goes for the ancestry of many other zoo and ex circus tigers too ). However, the loss of the pure Indian 'white' tiger through crossbreeding with Siberians has certainly worsened the situation.

I do not know of ANY purebred Indian tigers outside of India- possibly there are a few in Asia but I do not know locations. This seems a difficult fact to establish for certain.
 
dragonelenerd - yes i'm pretty sure they have both been carefully managed. the indochinese subspecies was recently split in two so i'm not sure if hybrids exist of both types in the US.

pertinax - agree on the "bengal" name. the title "indian" is preferable since it refers to tigers of the indian subcontinent, which includes the countries of nepal, bangladesh, bhutan and eastern burma - the range of this species.

now - what ARE we going to do about the names of asian rhinos though. whilst more correct the names "greater and lesser one horned rhinoceros" never sat well with me. nor did "asian two horned rhinoceros"

i just keep calling them indian, javan and sumatran...
 
phoenix said:
i just keep calling them indian, javan and sumatran...
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I've alway called them that...its simple even if not their full titles.

In answer to Dragonelenerd's question about the purity of Sumatran and Siberian(amur) Tigers in zoos- I think as most have been more recent additions to Zoos during the era of studbooks, their breeding has for the most part been much more carefully supervised and so they are far purer.
 
Would anyone know if there are any plans to breed pure-Indian Tigers outside of India?,
I guess that Indian zoo's would have stud books for there Tiger breeding?.
 
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