On Sunday 5th February, our female tiger, Surya, enjoyed her 8th birthday! She originally came from Paignton Zoo in Devon and lives at the park with our other tiger, a male named Bawa, who came from the Wildlife Heritage Foundation in Kent. Bawa is named after an island just off the coast of Sumatra whilst Surya is Indonesian for Sun.

Sumatran tigers are resident to the island of Sumatra in Indonesia and they are the smallest subspecies of tiger in the world. The stripes of the Sumatran tigers are much narrower compared to other tiger species and they have larger manes. Amazingly, they can reach sizes of about 2.5m in length and their smaller size allows them to travel through the dense Sumatran rainforest with ease.

Unfortunately, their natural habitat is being destroyed to make way for palm oil plantations. Ongoing deforestation, along with illegal hunting, has made these tigers one of the most endangered subspecies of tiger. They are classed as ‘critically endangered’ which means they are facing a very high risk of extinction in the wild. It is the highest risk category assigned by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

To halt this decline, Sumatran tigers were made part of an international breeding programme that involves over 250 animals worldwide, including the tigers at Flamingo Land who are one of just three contributing zoos in the UK. The movement of Sumatran tigers involved with this programme are coordinated by a studbook keeper, with pairings carefully selected to maximise genetic diversity. There are estimated to be less than 400 Sumatran tigers left in the wild, so it’s very important that we have a breeding population in captivity.

In the wild, tigers are solitary animals living and hunting alone, only coming together to breed. This means we must keep Bawa and Surya separate. Every now and then we allow the tigers to swap sides of their enclosure so they can scent mark and communicate with one another. The tigers receive a daily feed at 1pm and this forms part of our keeper talk which visitors to the park can enjoy to find out a little more about these fantastic animals.

To keep feeding time varied and interesting for them, the pieces of meat vary in size each day and the keeper puts it in different places meaning the tigers must use their senses to find out where their food has been placed.

Surya and Bawa can be found in the heart of our animal park just opposite our Giraffe plains.