Tiger Cubs Make their Debut
Posted at 8:10 am September 22, 2005 by Bridget Mulholland
The two newest members of Tiger River made their debut on exhibit the morning of September 8. The male Indochinese tiger cubs, who will be 16 weeks old September 24, have been having a blast on exhibit every day from 9 a.m. to noon ever since!
The first day on exhibit for Keemasan Mata (which means Golden Eye in Malay) and Asa Rimba (Hope Jungle in Malay) went very well. The two boys followed their mom, Mek Degong, out onto the exhibit and stayed up top near their den while Mek explored the territory. After she had checked out the area, Mek headed back toward the top and chuffed to Mata and Rimba to come down a little bit further. A chuff or chuffle is a tiger greeting or a content tiger vocalization. That first day the boys were playful and curious, but also a bit cautious. The waterfall near the lower viewing window scared Mata somewhat, and he hissed and ran away after seeing and hearing it.
Now that they have been going out for two weeks, the cubs appear to be much more comfortable and they can be seen tumbling with each other all around the exhibit. We put up a few barriers or guard rails along the areas of the exhibit that had steep drop offs for just that reason””sometimes the boys will be playing so hard that they will tumble together into one of the barriers!
At noon every day I bring Mek and her cubs back into their den so that I can put one of our other tigers out in the exhibit. Mek is always ready to come inside, but sometimes Rimba and Mata have played so hard that they are too tired and don’t hear me calling them. A few times I have had to go out on exhibit (after Mek has shifted off, of course!) to wake them up. I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to go in with them as they are getting big really fast. When I come back to work after my weekends, I am always amazed at how much they have grown in just two days!
Bridget Mulholland is a senior keeper at the San Diego Zoo’s Tiger River exhibit.
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September 24th, 2005 at 12:50 pm
How precious! I would love to see a ” Tiger Cam” installed so we can check on these beauties from time to time!
September 24th, 2005 at 4:39 pm
I agree. I would love to see a ” Tiger Cam” installed. From the sounds of it too, those cubs arent going to be cubs much longer. I just hope they don’t start fighting for territory. But from the sounds of things that might not even happen. To be honest, from the sounds of things, they just might enjoy themselves soo much there that the territory issue might not ever occur.
September 28th, 2005 at 11:00 am
Thank you so much for the info on the tigers. They are truly beautiful! As is their mama. Good luck keeping up with them as they sure are growing fast.
October 2nd, 2005 at 8:20 am
Rimba and Mata are lucky cubs. I’m sure they will have good captive lives. I can only wish the best for them but I am always wanting to do more for all the tigers of the world.
October 3rd, 2005 at 5:18 am
I enjoy your Pandacam so much. Would love a tiger cam too. How ’bout it?
December 13th, 2005 at 9:47 pm
Okay, we can live without the audio, but we could use a little more light. Also, we would love to be able to enlarge the cam to full page and click on the other Pandas. Thanks
January 25th, 2006 at 3:29 am
PLEASE, PLEASE add a tiger cam to your web-site.
April 9th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
I needed a couple of pictures for my Biology Research paper so I used yours. I was truley amazed when my teacher gave me not only 100% but 50 extra credit points for having so many nice pictures. So I just wanted to thank you for having nice pictures on your page.