Posts tagged "bengal tiger"

Scaredy Tiger Won't Climb Down Tower

by Rose Martelli (Subscribe to Rose Martelli's posts): Sep 24th 2009 3:00PM Filed Under: Exotic Pets

Bengal waffles but he don't come down. Photo: Barry Batchelor, PA / AP

The world's biggest 'fraidy cat -- at least this week -- is a two-year-old Bengal tiger who's stuck at the top of a tower, too timid to climb back down to Earth.

Tanvir, who lives at Noah's Ark Zoo Farm in Bristol, England, seemed to take to his new, 15-foot "activity tower" -- a structure of wooden platforms and, well, catwalks designed to sharpen the animal's agility and problem-solving skills -- when he scaled it in mere seconds on Monday. But now, he's staging a sit-in, refusing to walk back down.

On Tuesday, the Daily Mail reported that "Tanvir has been spotted peering over the edge of the platform and even dangling his paw over the side, as if to check how high up he is, before slinking back to safety. He spent today stretching and yawning, but resolutely refusing to come down."

The zoo's keepers aren't overly concerned, believing he'll brave the return trip when he's hungry enough. A Bengal tiger can typically last up to five days without food.

This isn't the first time Tanvir has proven to be "mischevious" on the ground but a "wimp" in the air, as zookeepers have described him. Previously, he'd climbed to the top of a tower that was only five feet high, and "even that took him half an hour to get down from," zoo spokesperson Samantha Cordrey told the Daily Mail.

Bengals are known as the second-largest tigers in the world after the Siberian tiger and, like most tigers, are solitary creatures. Rather than living in prides like lions, tigers prefer to live alone in their own, individual swaths of territory, and they are often afraid of humans.

So maybe Tanvir's just looking for a little me-time. According to the zoo's Twitter feed, Noah's Ark had its busiest day ever on August 30, less than six weeks after Tanvir moved into his English digs. (So far, there have been no Tweets about Tanvir's lofty predicament.) The zoo also recently launched a "Tiger Keeper Experience," allowing ordinary folks to help feed the animals.

But if you'd like to add to Tanvir's lack of privacy, see if you can spot him on the zoo's tiger webcam!

White Bengal Tiger Born Without Stripes

by Paul Ciampanelli (Subscribe to Paul Ciampanelli's posts): Jul 8th 2009 9:00AM Filed Under: Exotic Pets, Pets News

Photo: Kerry Hardy, Caters News / ZUMA Press

For Fareeda, a six-month-old female Bengal tiger cub, being a rare white tiger just isn't cool enough. She also has no stripes.

Fareeda was born at the Cango Wildlife Ranch in South Africa last Christmas. Part of a litter of three white tigers, Fareeda's lack of stripes wasn't something the keepers at the Cango Wildlife Ranch had counted on. Noticing that only two of the three newborn cubs bore the signature stripes, the keepers were delighted, though cautiously optimistic.

Just because a tiger is born without stripes is no guarantee that it will remain that way. "Some cubs develop stripes in their first few months," said keeper Odette Claassen. "We knew there was the possibility of the cub's very light black and ginger stripes darkening over time." But after six months, keepers declared it safe to say that snow-white Fareeda will remain sans stripes.

Fareeda is a part of a special breeding program at the Cape Town sanctuary that aims to perpetuate the rare white Bengal tiger. Most white Bengals are bred in the United States, the majority of them descended from Mohan, a white Bengal male captured and bred in the 1950s. So Fareeda's birth as part of the ranch's breeding program already made her special, though not as much as her unusual coat.

White tigers in general no longer exist in the wild, and among the few living in captivity, Fareeda is particularly remarkable. "As far as we know there are only about 20 recorded cases of 'stripeless' white tigers in the world," claims the ranch. All such cases are in captivity in the United States, progenies of Mohan. The missing stripes are the result of a recessive gene carried by both of Fareeda's parents.

Fareeda has become quite the hot attraction at the Cango Wildlife Ranch, a blessing for keepers who are working hard to educate the public about these rare animals and the importance of breeding programs like theirs.

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