Chester Zoos Tigers » Chester Zoo

Chester Zoos Tigers
13-09-2007

1. When does the female Sumatran Tiger arrive

2. When the female Sumatran does arrive, what are the zoo planning on doing with the two female Bengals.

13-09-2007

Maybe they'll be returned from whence they came. Was it West Midlands? I can't see them keeping them on as well.

13-09-2007

It was west midlands were they came from, chester have not got the room to keep 4 adult tigers.

But i don't they will go back to west middlands, when i was there only a few weeks ago they had around ten tigers there. Plus they only seem willing to breed white tigers, and only keep a few normal coloured bengals if they possess the white colour gene!

14-09-2007

Personally, I do not see the conservation value in white tigers. Whereas I do see one in pure-bred Bengal tigers. India's tiger population has collapsed in many areas including most of its wildlife reserves (it is a tightly kept public secret). Project Tiger has failed to lift their numbers, yet even IUCN is kept in the dark as to actual numbers. The Bengal subspecies is even not assessed in the 2007 Red List (whereas all other races including those extinct Javans, Balians and Caspians are all listed)!

14-09-2007

Coming back to the Sumatran tigers at Chester. What kind of housing do they have? Where abouts?

Any association with other SE Asian rainforest species? It would be so nice to see them exhibitted along with Malayan tapir, gibbons, lowland anoa and babirusa!

14-09-2007

Lowland ana are being phased out, the babirusa will be moving near them soon, but that won't be too close to them, and I don't think the zoo doesn't plan to bring in malayan tapirs in the near future.

14-09-2007

As mentioned before on this Forum, it is very sad that the original White Tigers imported to the Uk and USA from India were allowed to eventually breed with other races, creating a mixed-race population. Otherwise pure normal -coloured tigers could probably have been bred from them again, though excessive inbreeding would still have been a problem without other unrelated animals to outcross. The irony is those White tigers were among the last tigers to leave India.

14-09-2007

No more anoas, I'll have to get a new adoption. I heard the babirusa are having the pudu paddock.

14-09-2007

I'm not 100% sure about this anoa thing, but I remeber someone else mentioning it to me......Adopt a hornbill!!!

14-09-2007

The Bengal subspecies has not been assessed because the IUCN are awaiting the results of the current tiger census which is due to be completed by the end of this year, as mentioned in this article:

Conservationists 'astonished' by Indian tiger find | Environment | Guardian Unlimited

The numbers have clearly much lower than from the previous census (2002) so to carry on using that data would obviously be meaningless.

There is a good article in the September issue of BBC Wildlife magazine (in the UK) on the plight of the Bengal tiger. It was also the subject of a very good 'Natural World' documentary earlier this year called 'Battle to Save the Tiger'. More info in this article:

Tiger numbers at catastrophic levels - Telegraph

14-09-2007

They are not going to breed from the current anoa pair again.

14-09-2007

The tigers at Chester are housed in an enclosure completed in 1986. This area comprises the original tiger enclosure form the 1950s and a former waterfowl enclosure.

There is a house at the north west corner containing one on show den and three off show dens, together with an office for keepers. The tigers are shut in every night. They used to be left to come and go as they pleased 24 hours a day until a severe storm in the 1960s blew down a tree which partially demolised the fence. Luckily the tigers were too nervous to go near it.

The paddock is grass and contains a large pool. There are several trees to provide shade and a wooden platform on which the tigers can lie and watch the world go by.

In 2005 a window was installed along the southern boundary of the enclosure allowing visitors to observe the tigers through glass. This area is a small shelter in which infiormation about tiger coinservation is displayed.

The size is approximately 150 feet (50 metres) wide and 40 feet (133 metres) long. The total area is around 6000 square feet (2000 square metres), enclosed by a chain link fence.

The enclosure has mostly housed 1.1 with young cubs.

On the left of the enclosure is the zoo's maintenance department in the old stable block, and to the right is the Europe on the Edge aviary. To the north is a small paddock for domestic goats. This used to be a walk through until the 2001 foot and mouth epidemic. Opposite the southern boundary is a wide pathway leading to the owl aviaries. There are no other tropical Asian species housed nearby.

14-09-2007

Is there any chance they will landscape/update the Tiger enclosure sometime soon e.g. add some Bamboo, boulders, more living(planted)trees etc. I've always thought both the Lion and Tiger enclosures at Chester are perfectly adequate in size but visually boring-for both inhabitants and visitors alike, as they haven't changed much since the old Mottershead days....

15-09-2007

When did you last visit? There have been some changes quite recently. A couple of years ago they enlarged the climbing structure. On my last visit (july), the glass viewing area had opened and there had been some new planting put in. It was mostly bamboo.

Some extra trees would be nice like you say and some landscaping to give more varied terrain.

15-09-2007

... about three years ago...