Tiger Cubs Are Growing Up!
Posted at 3:28 pm November 2, 2007 by Kym Nelson
The three Sumatran tiger cubs—Kemala, Sari, and Rojo—are growing up so fast (see previous blog, Sumatran Tiger Cubs Update)! They are almost 11 months old and getting as big as their mother, Delta. Rojo, the little boy, now weighs a whopping 130 pounds (59 kilograms)!! His sisters, Sari and Kemala, are close behind, weighing in at 114 pounds (52 kilograms). They are quite the handful and definitely have distinct personalities.
Rojo can best be described as a lovable momma’s boy. He can always be found close to mom, and he is the most affectionate towards his keepers, offering us a chuff every once in awhile. Kemala is the troublemaker of the bunch, and she is the most vocal. Sari (pictured below) is like a breath of fresh air when it comes to training: she is the most focused and is usually the first of her siblings to learn a new behavior. Sari is also the biggest fan of the water; she takes after her dad, Utan, in this respect. She takes all of her toys, including the paper towels, straight to the water, making sure that no pool or drinker is ever easy to clean! One of the funniest things that she does: on the two days a week when they receive a femur bone as enrichment, she immediately carries hers to the pool and washes it off before settling down to eat!
The cubs are eating almost as much as mom now. They receive 4 pounds (1.8 kilograms) of meat daily while Delta receives 5 pounds (2.2 kilograms)! Thing is that the cubs believe they should be eating more still and will try to steal mom’s food whenever they get the chance! Even though Delta is still much larger than her babies (she weighs 185 pounds or 84 kilograms), she will not reprimand them for stealing her food even if they take it right out of her mouth! Delta just backs off and lets her kids have whatever they want. (Talk about spoiled.) We try to always separate the tigers and feed them individually, because it allows them to focus on their training. Our cats are no slouches! Already the cubs know how to sit, lie down, target (hold their nose to our fist), and rise up on the fence, and they are learning to go to a mark. Not bad for 11 months old! (Kudos to Michelle and Aimee, their two primary trainers!)
How long they should stay with their mom? In the wild, a tiger cub would stay with mom for about two years, but most of this time is spent learning how to hunt. In the wild, mom also has plenty of opportunities to take a break from her cubs; here at the Wild Animal Park, space does not allow for much of a break. With this in mind, we have started the process of separating Delta from the kids. Right now we are separating them at night to give her a much-needed rest, and soon we will increase the amount of time apart. A big benefit of these nightly separations is that it gives us a chance to collect fecal samples from Delta. These fecal samples are being sent to the CRES lab where they look at her hormone levels in order to track her estrous cycles. This way, when the time comes we will be ready to breed Delta once again!
As a final note, I wanted to mention that the tigers (and all of the cats here at the Park) are no worse for wear after the fires (see Fire Update from the Wild Animal Park). The strong winds caused us to lock all the cats inside their respective houses long before the fires reached the Park (this was done as a precaution against the threat of the wind bringing down trees in the enclosures). While there was quite a bit of smoke and ash for several days, the cats never seemed to care and went on as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred!
Kym Nelson is a keeper at the Wild Animal Park.
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November 2nd, 2007 at 4:46 pm
Kym,
Thank you for the update on the baby tigers, I have been fortunate to see them, but the last time I was there my friend and I walked out to see them but they weren’t out. It would be nice to have a sign near the entrance to let people know what tiger/s are out, even though I enjoy all of the big cats, it is a pleasure to see the babies so it would be nice to know when they are out.
I will be up there this week and I hope I get the chance to see them again. They certainly are cute and very intertaining when they are not sleeping. They are growing up so fast.
Also thank you for letting us know they are OK and the fires didn’t harm them and they are back out agian.
November 2nd, 2007 at 5:58 pm
Thank you for the updates! I always enjoy hearing about how babies develop their own distinct personalities. Glad that the animals weren’t much affected by the fires!
November 2nd, 2007 at 7:58 pm
Hi Kym,
Thanks for the detailed information on each tiger cub - they have such unique and endearing personalities.
We will be visiting the Park this coming week and, hopefully, we will be able to enjoy watching the cubs interact on exhibit.
Thank you and all the animal keepers for taking such wonderful care of all the animals - especially during the fire storm. We truly appreciate your hard work. Our prayers were with everyone at the WAP and the SDZoo last week.
November 3rd, 2007 at 6:07 am
Is it Kamala or Kemala? The previous tiger update says Kamala.
Moderator’s note: The official spelling is Kemala. We’ve made the change in the previous blog. Thank you!
November 4th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
Thanks Kym for the update on the tigers. They sure are growing fast. I visited the three cubs at NZP yesterday, and was amazed how much they have grown in a month. Since my last visit they have been separated from their mother because she was starting estrus again, and had become very aggressive toward them. However, yesterday the animal interpreter who was talking with visitors at the Great Cats exhibit told me that much to their surprise, she is longing for her cubs lately. They can still see and hear her, but are separated by several layers of mesh fencing. They do not go out on exhibit together, and haven’t for about 6 weeks.
They sure do change between 1 year of age and 16 months of age. When I visited them at 12 months they were still playful and chasing each other. Now, at 16 months they spend most of their time sleeping as if they were full size adults tigers. It will be interesting to see how Delta’s relationship with her 3 cubs plays out as she begins to come into estrus in the next few weeks/months.
Since the cubs don’t have to be taught as much about hunting, etc., it is natural that they would not need to be with their mother as long. I find it interesting that all “play” and “games” between a mother tiger and her cubs is “training/school” preparing them to be hunters.
November 8th, 2007 at 5:06 pm
I just wanted to say I was at theh WAP on Tuesday, my friend and I spend a long time watching the 3 cubs and their Mom. When we first got there 2 of them were in the water. Then they got out and started running after each other and playing. Then a guest and his little boy came and you should of seen the tigers zero in on this little boy. They came right up to the fince to get closer to the boy and they followed him where ever he walked and I got great pictures of them upclose. I must say they are very entertaining and fun to watch. I can’t wait to see them again, what a treat to see them playing and having so much fun even with their Mom.
November 8th, 2007 at 9:23 pm
Hi Kym,
We visited the Animal Park this past Sunday hoping to get a glimpse of the darling cubs - no luck - the only tiger on exhibit was Utan, (I think). We were able to get some great photos of him, however, we missed seeing Delta and the cubs.
We decided to take the Journey into Africa tram ride. It was very enjoyable and relaxing, observing all the different animals, and in turn, some were watching us
.
Kym, is there a special time during the week to visit Delta and the cubs? We don’t want to miss them on our next visit.
Thanks so very much for caring for these beautiful animals. Your hard work is appreciated.