Amur tigers

Zambar, our Amur tiger will be leaving us soon for a new home at Blackpool Zoo. He will move during January 2010 and, in time, will be paired with a female from Whipsnade Zoo.                                               

Zambar was born on 19 March 2004 to Yenna and Gamin – who you can still see in the park. He was support-fed when young and is a great favourite with guests and staff alike.

 

Amur leopards

We are proud to announce that a new Amur leopard, named Kaia, recently arrived and settled in well.

We hope that Kaia will breed with Akin, our resident male, next year and contribute to the European conservation breeding programme to help save the species from extinction. Kaia was born on 15 May 2008 at Tallinn Zoo in Estonia.

Less than 35 Amur leopards remain in the wild, making them one of the rarest big cats in the world. Amur leopards used to roam a wide area, living in theforests and mountains of Russia, Korea and China. Over the last few years their range has become smaller and smaller and they now only live in the far east of Russia.

The Amur leopard, like most big cats, has suffered due to trophy hunters and poachers killing them for their beautiful fur coats and for their bones for the wildlife trade – leopard bones can be passed off as tiger bones for use in Chinese medicine. Other major reasons include loss of habitat and depletion of their prey species due competition with humans.