Each week, I would like to share information about the
animals I am working with. This week, I want to chose is the Amur tiger. Amur
tigers are also known as Siberian tigers. They are considered endangered on the
conservation status. This means that they are threatened with danger or with
extinction. These tigers can be commonly
found in the Sikhote Alin Mountains in the Russian Far East. The ones that we
have at the zoo are named: Nika (female), Nikita (female), Isabella (female),
and Yorgi (male).
Some common characteristics they help identify these kinds
of tigers are reddish-rusty in color with black transverse stripes, their fur
tends to be very thick, full and fluffy, and that their body length is longer
than Bengal tigers and African lions. In addition, their vocals have more of a ruffled effect in their voice.
Amur tigers diet in the wild consists of bears, ungulates, wolves
and other small mammals. Here at the zoo, we feed our tigers and most of our
larger big cats roughly 25 pounds of meat daily with the exception of two
fasting days. On the fasting days, we give them a smaller amount of meat or substitute
their diet with something else such as, horse tails, rat, chicken, bones, and etc.
The reason why we fast our cats is because in real life, sometimes a big cat
may not be able to find prey and cannot eat for a day. In addition, fasting is
commonly used in the case if we need to have a vet come in for a special
procedure so that the vet can get good images if we have to perform an
ultrasound to check the vital organs. Also,
this helps regulate their diet if a big cat does not have much of an appetite
and encourages them to be more hungry and ready for their regular diet the next
day.
Isabella
Nika
Yorgi
Isabella visitng me every morning :)
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