Help Save the Sumatran Tiger

Dear Sumatran tiger supporters,

Once again, after great excitement and anticipation, we must report a sad, disappointing and frustrating outcome. After all the excitement of tracking our female’s pregancy; and after hoping that with a new male as the father of this litter, things might be different – once again, cubs born to Hannah have not survived.

After previous disappointments, our zoological team invested much effort to try and ensure improved outcomes. We consulted with other zoos who participate in this international breeding program; we installed more and better monitoring cameras within the tiger house and enclosure; we made an outdoor space available to the mother and cubs to ensure that she did not feel “trapped” inside after giving birth; and we minimized disturbances down to almost zero after she gave birth.

From the cameras – which were monitored constantly after she gave birth – we noted that Hannah initially cared well for the cubs. At some point, we noticed that her licking behavior was excessive and unfortunately, shortly after that, she killed the cubs. Although shocking, this behavior does occur also in the wild.

We had hoped that Hannah’s increased maturity might improve her skills as a mother but it was not to be. We are unable to separate cubs from the mother until after they are weaned because, from past experience, we know that cubs hand-reared by humans never adjust to tiger “society” as adults and find it very difficult to live with other tigers in captivity.

On the other hand, we are obliged to continue our breeding efforts given the critically endangered status of this beautiful species.

With sad regards,

Team Tiger at the Jerusalem Zoo