A two-year-old Sumatran tiger has arrived at Fota Wildlife Park in Co Cork under a scheme aiming to save the species from extinction.
Dao was “settling in really well” to his new surroundings, said Fota’s lead ranger, Julien Fonteneau.
He said the Sumatran tiger was one of the rarest tiger species in the world, classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2008, with fewer than 350 individuals estimated to remain in the wild.
The species now has just two remaining wild habitats – the near 14,000km/sq Kerinci Seblat National Park in western Sumatra and at the 25,000km/sq Ulu Masen-Leuser ecosystem at the mountainous northern end of the Indonesian island.
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The tiger’s arrival is part of a European endangered species programme, under which tigers may be transferred to other zoological parks to pair with new mates in order to preserve genetic diversity.
“Dao arrived at Fota Wildlife Park earlier in December from Zoo Krefeld in Germany and he went through a period of gradual introduction to his new habitat. We’re delighted to say that he is settling in really well,” Mr Fonteneau said.
“Dao has been specifically selected to be paired with the resident female tiger, Jambi, who came from Heidelberg Zoo, Germany in February 2023. We hope they will both play a key part in global tiger conservation.”
He said Sumatran tigers were the smallest surviving species of tiger, but they were being driven closer to extinction in the wild due to the destruction of their natural habitat, conflict between humans and wildlife, and the poaching to supply illegal trade. The average male weighs about 120kg and is 2.5 metres from head to tail. Females weigh an average of 90kg and are 2.1 metres in length. The species has a lifespan in the wild of 15-20 years.
“The collective noun for tigers is a streak and our streak of Sumatra tigers at Fota, each of whom can be individually identified by their unique stripe pattern, includes the 10-year-old male, Batak, the female Jambi aged 3½, and now the two-year-old Dao,” Mr Fonteneau said.
“Introducing a new tiger is a highly specialised process that demands expert husbandry. Eventually Dao and Jambi will be gradually acclimatised to each other in preparation for the breeding programme.”
The last Sumatran tiger birth at Fota Wildlife Park was Dash, a male born in the summer of 2019. He has since moved to Chester Zoo in England where he has sired two tiger cubs under the breeding programme.
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