Starving tigers get meat

Starving tigers get meat

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP): Australian zoos will fund an emergency shipment of 16 metric tons of meat to feed 70 tigers at an Indonesian zoo which are starving because of the financial crisis, a spokeswoman said yesterday.

The Taman Safari Indonesia, in Cisarua, West Java, usually buys its meat supplies from Australia, but the devaluation of the Indonesian currency and a drop in tourist numbers has left it struggling to feed its animals.

The Australasian Regional Association of Zoological Parks and Aquaria, the organization representing all of Australia's public zoos, will send the 16 ton shipment to Indonesia on July 17, spokeswoman Judith Ainsworth Henke said.

A smaller shipment, bought with a flood on donations from Australians after the tigers' plight was broadcast on television last week, will be sent sooner to sustain the safari park's 45 Bengal and 25 Sumatran Tigers.

The normal zoo diet for big cats consist of one or two "starve days" between feeds, to mimic natural hunting patterns, Ainsworth Henke said.

She said the Indonesian tigers were very stressed, existing on three starve days a week and the bare minimum on feed days.

Fewer than 500 Sumatran tigers are believed to survive in their native Indonesian habitat.

Melbourne Zoo's director Leo Oosterweghel said the zoo was working with other major Australasian zoos on a breeding program for Sumatran Tigers.

"It's important to provide this immediate assistance to the tigers at Taman Safari," he said. "Other major zoos around the world are also participating in this emergency effort."