TIGERS: At the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum
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On May 2, 2004, our Sumatran tiger Soyono gave birth to a litter of three male cubs. These cubs left the Zoo in January 2006. Soyono gave birth to another litter of three cubs in May 2006. This diary, by keeper Marie Magnuson, follows the older three cubs from their birth to their departure from the Zoo.
January 10, 2006
The boys are 20 months old now. In the wild, some time after her cubs are about 18 months of age, a mother tiger sends them off to find territories of their own. Often the cubs will stay together for a while, and there have been reports of tigers hunting together. Scientists think that these are probably young siblings on the search for their own territories.
In a sense, that is what Marah, Jalan, and Besar have done. During the first week in January, the boys moved to the Downtown Aquarium in Denver, Colorado. The Sumatran Tiger Species Survival Program (SSP), which the National Zoo participates in, recommended this move. This program makes decisions about which Sumatran tigers go where to breed with whom. Each endangered species with an SSP has a studbook with details about all the participating animals. This is essential to maintaining genetic health in the captive population. While the cubs are too young to breed, they will make excellent exhibit animals until breeding opportunities arise, whether in Denver or at another facility.
The Downtown Aquarium is a wonderful place, and the cubs will be getting lots of training and enrichment activities. The building is huge and the tiger exhibit is entirely indoors, so don’t worry about the tropical Sumatran tigers being in wintry Denver. As a matter of fact it was 60 degrees the week the cubs arrived! There is a nice big pool with lots of fish and we are confident that the cubs will be very happy there.
 A warning on each of the tigers' crates |
The move itself went very smoothly. Due to restrictions on size and weight for cargo, and the fact that we wanted the boys to fly during the warmer daylight hours, the cubs went one at a time. Jalan went first, and I went on the same flight. The people at United Airlines took great care of the cats, and I was there when the cargo hold was opened so he could be greeted by a familiar face and voice. The Aquarium staff took over then and loaded him onto a truck and drove Jalan into Denver and got him into their quarantine building. The boys will go through a 30-day quarantine at their new home, just as new animals at the National Zoo do. The next day, Marah arrived and demonstrated how he lives up to his name, which can be translated as “feisty”! After mellow Jalan, the cargo handlers were surprised by Marah's warning roars any time they approached his transport cage. Once at the Aquarium, he settled right down, and Jalan was happy to see his brother arrive. Besar was next, and by the time he arrived the Aquarium staff had the loading and unloading of the heavy cages down to a science, so he was with his brothers in no time.
The next day the Aquarium staff and I went over the training that the boys have had so far, and we talked about their personalities. We talked about Besar’s self-confidence, Jalan’s intelligence, and Marah’s playfulness. Then it was time for the hard part. I said good-bye to each of the boys and told them I knew they would make us proud. I know they will and that they will receive the best of care from the fine people at the Downtown Aquarium. If you are ever in Denver, I hope you will go there and say “Hi!” to the boys.
Read the previous entry.
