The tigers at Chester Zoo have moved to their new home in the £40m Islands exhibit.
Sumatran tigers Fabi, eight, Kirana, nine, and their nine-month-old cubs Kasarna, Jaya and Topan are now settling in to their state-of-the-art surroundings, which span over 2,000sq metres in size.
The exhibit, named the Hutan Jungle Reserve, is part of the zoo’s £40m Islands development - the biggest in UK zoo history - which began opening in phases earlier this year. It has been designed by the zoo’s carnivore keepers, conservation and education teams and expert architects from Germany to closely mirror habitats in South East Asia.
In the planning since 2011, the Hutan Jungle Reserve boasts several mature trees as well as two 20-ft-tall wooden feeding poles fitted with pulleys that hoist large chunks of meat to the tops – encouraging the tigers to use all of their muscles and climb and work for their meals. There are breeding and cubbing dens and a tunnel cutting through the middle of the enclosure that visitors can walk through.
Staff at the zoo hope the new area will help to put an extra spotlight on the Sumatran tiger, which is classed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as critically endangered with extinction.
Tim Rowlands, curator of mammals at the zoo, said: “Our new Sumatran tiger exhibit is the ultimate big cat playground. There are lots of high vantage points for the tigers to climb up to from where they can survey the South East Asian-inspired landscape that the enclosure is set in; heated rocks to warm their muscles after a day of exploring; densely planted areas; cosy dens and feeding poles for them to scale at mealtimes.
"Sumatran tigers have webbing between their toes making them superb swimmers and so it even has a pool and a stream for them to play in – it’s all part of us creating an area for them that’s a close as possible to their natural habitat.
“It has been designed to first and foremost meet the needs of tigers but it also offers spectacular viewing opportunities for visitors. By bringing visitors as close to the tigers as possible, the new exhibit will inspire people to remember just how precious they are and learn more about what we all need to do to protect them in the wild.
“There are less than 400 Sumatran tigers left in South East Asia and, sadly, the remaining population is hanging on to survival by a thread. Without conservation efforts their future could look similar to that of Javan and Balinese tigers, both extinct.”
Sumatran tigers are found only on the Indonesian islands of Sumatra. They are the smallest of all tigers and also have the narrowest stripes.
In Sumatra the species is often targeted by poachers who use their body parts as traditional medicine and much of their jungle habitat has been destroyed to make way for agriculture and palm oil plantations.
- The new exhibit at Chester Zoo’s Islands opens to visitors today, October 1.
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