Longleat keepers reveal all-girl tiger cubs lineup

Delighted keepers today revealed the genders of the four rare Amur tiger cubs born at Longleat in Wiltshire in May. The birth attracted world-wide attention as the cubs account for half of all successful Amur tigers born in Europe in the last two years.

Carnivore keeper Kayleigh Smith said: “We recently had a vet health check for the cubs, and we have four very healthy little girls which is very exciting. Female tigers can be kept together longer, so mum Yana will have more time to bond with them. “It also means we will have seven tigers at Longleat as we have Yana, the cubs, dad Red and older sister Yuki which is incredible. The girls will go on to be part of the vital international breeding programme for this species,” she added.

Longleat now has the largest collection of Amur tigers in the UK. The species is currently listed as endangered and the Longleat cubs equate to more than 25 per cent of births across Europe in the previous two years. It is estimated that there are only 450 Amur tigers remaining in the wild making it one of the most endangered animals in the world.

The keepers are monitoring their welfare regularly and Kayleigh says: “We have seen new behaviours from the cubs since our last update as they are now climbing in and out of the box where they were born. We’ve added extra areas where they can hide within the house. But they know the box where they were born is their safe space and we’ve seen them totter back there. Mum is happy watching them explore but if they push the boundary, she picks them up and puts them back in the box. They are also going into the outdoor pen by their house and when Yana tells them that’s enough, they all follow her back in. The growing cubs have high energy demands and are feeding from mum well.

Yana is starting to introduce sights and smells of meat; they are too young to eat meat at the moment as their teeth are still very small, but Yana has brought them bones to sniff and lick. These are the first few steps towards eating meat,” she added.

It will be late summer before the cubs will be able to be seen by visitors to the Safari Park as they will need to have had all their inoculations which will take place in the next few weeks. Native to the far east of Russia, the Amur tiger is the largest of the big cats and can weigh up to 300 kg and measure more than three metres in length. In the 1930s the tigers had nearly died out due to hunting and logging. At one stage it is thought the population fell as low as just 20–30 animals.