Symbio Wildlife Park Sydney's favourite Sumatran Tigers 'Cinta and Jalur' are bound for Tasmania

This was on the email that I received from Symbio on Thursday 17th May 2018.



The team at Symbio Wildlife Park are excited to announce that on the 6th of June 2018 their two critically endangered Sumatran Tiger siblings, 'Cinta' and 'Jalur', will be heading to a new home in Tasmania. This move will play a vital role in broadening the awareness of the plight of their species as they continue their work as iconic ambassadors for conservation.

The 9 year old siblings, who came to Symbio over 7 years ago from Auckland Zoo formed part of a regional captive management breeding program. The tigers have helped in educating and inspiring hundreds of thousands of visitors to the wildlife park every year, helping to understand the challenges that many species are facing through illegal poaching and habitat destruction.

Marketing Manager for Symbio Wildlife Park, Kevin Fallon, has said that "Over the past 7 years our team has invested significant funds and staffing to provide a world class facility and industry-leading levels of care for Cinta and Jalur, along with the late Kato, who passed away several months back due to age related illness."

"Throughout this time we built the award-winning Tiger enclosure, educated hundreds of thousands of visitors about conservation and furthering their connection with wildlife, helped change peoples shopping habits (namely around palm oil products) to assist wild tiger populations, raised vital funds for in-situ Sumatran tiger conservation initiatives, all while our staff gained invaluable skills and experience in the daily husbandry and management of big cats."

"These are extremely exciting times as it now means that Cinta and Jalur's work as ambassadors for their species will reach a whole new audience and it will allow the team here at Symbio to allocate more resources in ensuring that we have the most interactive and best visitor experiences available anywhere, while investing in a wider variety of conservation projects that are closer to home and focused on our own Australian native species."

"As part of these changes, visitors will enjoy new and improved animal presentations throughout the day as well as species such as Little penguins, Tree Kangaroos and a Saltwater Crocodile exhibit, as well as two exciting new infrastructure projects - all planned for the near future. The team at Symbio will also be furthering their work and involvement around breed-to-release and conservation programs with many of our endangeredAustralian animals."

Staff at Symbio have a big farewell weekend planned for Cinta and Jalur on the 2nd and 3rd of June, and are encouraging everyone who have had the privilege to meet the siblings to come along and say a final goodbye and wish them good luck on their new journey. There will be free face-painting and a special farewell presentation for Cinta and Jalur while they enjoy the Symbio visitors one last time.

 

It seems Symbio will concentrate now more on native species conservation.

Did the Sumatran tiger pair ever breed while at Symbio?

 

That's an interesting species to go out of, I imagine they would have been some of the more popular animals there. They do still have a reasonable range of exotics, so it might be a temporary exit from tigers...?

@Kifaru Bwana - they wouldn't have been bred, being siblings...

 

No they didn't breed.

 

This news probably should have been posted in either: Big/Small Cats in Australasian Zoos – News, History and Discussion or a generalised news thread for Symbio, rather than warranting it's own thread.

The Sumatran tigers Jalur and Cinta are littermates born in June 2008 and neither animal bred as mates were not imported for them.

The other tiger they had at Symbio was unrelated, but a Bengal tiger, born November 2001.

 

No, It's a permanent decision.
However, exotic animals will still form part of the ongoing collection.

 

Seems a sorry waste not to have these paired up somewhere. Now, it will be almost past reproductive age. Allthough, saying so I am not fully on the go re Australian zoo Sumatrans.

 

They're are 15 holders in Australia and New Zealand combined. In Europe we have 55 at the moment. They won't give out breeding or transfer recommendations without somewhere to theoretically put any resulting cubs once they grow up. So breeding is very heavily restricted - the same has happened in Europe in recent years but not on the same scale. You might have noted that Wellington were sent a male from Indonesia via Beerwah via several years ago now. He and his siblings were from wild caught parents and are considered vital to the GSMP, but because of the lack of space in Australia/New Zealand at the moment, he and his mate (a female originally from Mogo) have been refused a breeding recommendation until now. Sending cubs to Europe (or possibly the United States) wouldn't be an option either because most of the current stock originates from Europe or has parents who were bred in Europe themselves..

 

Jalur and Cinta (born 2008) were part of a ‘baby boom’ of Sumatran tigers in the Australasian region, which comprised of 25 tigers born between 2006 and 2011. See Post #24 of this thread for the full list and summary: Big/Small Cats in Australasian Zoos – News, History and Discussion

Of these 25 tigers, 2 died in adolescence and 2 were exported to Europe (United Kingdom and France). This left 21 tigers, all of which are alive today. Only 1 of these 25 has bred to date and it is likely many never will.

 

I didn't realise they were phasing tigers out of their facility altogether, that's an interesting move. But I love their reasonings, focusing more on native species is a step in the right direction in my opinion. The natives are so overlooked, they need more attention.

I wish more of Symbio's media posts were like this one - explaining their contributions to conservation and the directions they wish to head in - unlike most of their typical un-educational Facebook posts... "oh look at this cute and cuddly animal!! zookeeping is about playing and cuddling them! wild animals are so friendly!!"

Anyway.. The facility itself sounds beautiful and the animals do look very happy and healthy. I applaud their efforts and look forward to seeing their future developments in the name of conservation and animal welfare. And good luck to Cinta and Jalur at their new home.

 

Are they going to Tasmania Zoo in Launceston (which has never had tigers before) or to ZooDoo in Hobart which has had tigers in the past (and theoretically would have an enclosure sitting empty for them....)

 

Tasmania Zoo I believe.

Edit to my above post: It should of said, of these 21 tigers (not 25 tigers), only 1 has bred. Of the 21 that remained in zoos in the region (as oppose to the 2 that died and the 2 that were exported), indeed only 1 has bred. Of course Melati, who was sent to ZSL London Zoo, has produced several cubs.

 

Out of interest could someone supply a rough list of the main species held at each of these places- Tasmania Zoo and 'ZooDoo'. Also, where is ZooDoo located- is it somewhere outside Hobart?

 

This gives a main overview of the species at Tasmania Zoo:

Tasmania Zoo - Riverside, TAS - Animals

In terms of specifics, I know they currently hold 2.1 servals, 1.1 mandrills and 2.1 African wild dogs.

 

Thanks for the link and information.

 

Hi Ashanti,
I get what you're saying, we're slowly adding more educational messages alongside the 'cutie posts'. While the regular cute animal posts probably won't appeal to zoo enthusiasts (Is there a term for us? lol), it has served it's purpose - as we've won multiple awards for our marketing, had a significant increase in our social media following and visitation, and had numerous other zoos now use the same formula. We're now the fourth most followed zoo in Australia on social media- not bad for a 16 acre zoo with a modest collection. Statistics have shown, unfortunately, purely educational posts don't connect with people, and the most popular videos include keeper/animal interaction.

 

That's sad, but I guess not surpising. I just personally get a bit uncomfortable with videos portraying potentially dangerous animals as super cuddly, as I worry some viewers are dumb enough to look at that and then go attempt that with wild animals. Though I guess natural selection will take care of that..

I'm happy to hear that they're planning on including some educational messages more often. I assume Taronga and Australia Zoo are 1# and 2#, but then who would 3# be? Perth?

 

Dreamworld, Australia Zoo, Taronga, Symbio.....

 

Hmm don't know if I really consider Dreamworld a zoo, hard to compete with rollar coasters

 

The cheetahs have now moved into the tiger enclosure and the dingos are in the cheetah enclosure.