The new cubs
in town

By William Kenny
Times Staff Writer

They walk like house cats, talk like house cats and act like house cats. But they definitely aren’t house cats.
In fact, a house is the last place the Philadelphia Zoo’s three new Amur tiger cubs belong, despite their precious faces, cuddly coats and playful dispositions.
A year or two down the road, zoo officials hope, the two males and one female born there on May 24 will mature into full-grown adults weighing from 250 to 700 pounds or more.
But for now, Koosaka, Changbai and Terney seem content to chase each other and their mother, Kira, around the zoo’s Big Cat Falls most mornings before retiring to their den for some well-earned mother’s milk and a nap.
Therefore, mornings are the best time for visitors to get a good look at the 20-pound cubs, which went on public view for the first time last Thursday.
Their early appearances reinforced the notion that people are always attracted to babies, regardless of the species.
"Not only are they real cute, but you see the mother, and that’s what they’ll grow to be," said Vikram Dewan, president of the zoo. "(The attraction) is a combination of wanting to hug them and the fear element."
Regardless of age, tigers are strikingly beautiful animals. Their orange coats and white underbellies feature the trademark black stripes that camouflage the animals in the tall, shadowy grasses of their natural habitat.
Amur tigers, formerly known as Siberian tigers and hailing from northern China and eastern Russia, are the largest of the world’s big cats. But they are endangered, with only about 400 or 500 of the species remaining in the wild.
Their personalities are also familiar to humans, as the tigers act much like their domesticated cousins, but on a much, much grander scale.
Adults in the species are loners. They socialize with one another mostly for mating and only when the female allows.
That’s why the new cubs’ father, 12-year-old Dmitri, is nowhere to be found when Kira, 10, is out with her litter. The consequences of a fight could be deadly.
"Breeding big cats is one of the most dangerous things we do," said Kay Buffamonte, one of the keepers for the tigers. "It’s naturally a volatile situation. We take our cues primarily from the females. We have to be sure she’s in a heat cycle and where in that cycle she is."
In the wild, fathers take off after mating and are long gone by birth of the cubs.
In time, Kira will shun the cubs, too. But they still have plenty of growing and learning to do before that happens. They are the mother’s fourth litter, three of which were born in Philadelphia.
"She lets the kids run around," explained Andy Baker, the zoo’s vice president for animal programs. "Most of their interaction is when they nurse and she grooms them. They play-stalk her, and later on she’ll engage a little bit more. She’ll swat them away."
On Thursday, as one of the cubs chased and nibbled on his mother’s tail, his two siblings wrestled in the grass of their 6,000-square-foot enclosure, rolled in a pool of water, jumped onto logs and attempted unsuccessfully to climb a tree.
One of the cubs managed to scale the trunk with a bear hug but couldn’t navigate his way onto the branches. It was the first time Buffamonte had seen a tree-climb attempt.
"House cats are like tiny tigers, and tigers are like giant house cats. Basically, their biology and behavior patterns are very similar," Baker said, before noting that it took humans hundreds of generations to domesticate cats into house pets.
Tigers, on the other hand, remain very wild. The carnivores like to eat deer, boar and other large mammals.
That proves problematic for them in their natural habitat as local herdsmen kill them to protect their livestock. Also, tigers are valuable to poachers for their coats and for their traditional medicinal properties.
There are about as many Amur tigers in captivity as remain in the wild. There are 150 of the species at zoos around the United States. Because of their endangered status, the tigers are on a carefully planned breeding program designed to maintain a diverse gene pool.
After the cubs reach reproductive maturity in 18 months to two years, they’ll be shipped to other zoos to join the breeding program.
"We want them to become ambassadors for their species," Dewan said. "In (time), they will leave the Philadelphia Zoo and take that message out to the public." ••
For more information about Amur tigers and the Philadelphia Zoo, visit www.philadelphiazoo.org or call 215-243-1100.
Reporter William Kenny can be reached at 215-354-3031 or bkenny@phillynews.com