May 17
Soyono got to go outside for the first time since her confinement began on April 19. We hid some bones out in the yard for her to find, so she would have something fun to do and wouldn't worry too much about the cubs.
While she was out Drs. Sanchez and Bronson, Zoo Director Lucy Spelman, Associate Director Mary Tanner, and the keepers went back and quickly gave the cubs the once over. The vets checked their eyes and teeth, poop samples were collected, and they cubs were weighed. They weighed from 5 to 5.3 pounds each, which is very impressive since they weighed about two pounds each when they were born two weeks ago. They had more than doubled their weight. Good job, Soyono!
Today we also found out the answer to the question that everyone had been asking us: boys or girls? They are all nice, healthy boys who will be raised by their mother here at the National Zoo until they are old enough to go to other zoos, and, we hope, have cubs of their own someday. For now, they will stay inside with their mom. She has access to five cages and three cubbing dens and moves the cubs frequently.
We also took a few photos of them.
Say "Cheese!"
Soyono has been getting to know her cubs and they've been getting to know her. We keepers have learned self-control. Except for bringing Soy her food, and only minimal cleaning (and changing the CD in the boom box), no one went back by the cubbing dens so as not to disturb the new mother. Fortunately, we had the monitor so we could watch them together and see the cubs nurse. Even if we couldn't have seen the cubs feeding, we would have known what a good mother Soy was by how fat her cubs were getting!
If you don't see any tigers on the 
web cam, it means she has moved them again. Please be patient. Remember, we are trying not to bother the tigers any more than we have to. When the cubs are big enough they will get to go out with their mom, but for now Soyono goes out by herself. You can see her in the big tiger yard, usually between 11:30 and 1:30. She enjoys going outside but after two hours she is eager to come back inside and be with her babies. It will probably be about two months before they can join her outside.
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