Rare tigers on a breeding mission

Jul 5 2007 By Tony Deeley, Birmingham Mail

RARE tigers born at a Midland zoo have been transferred to important collections across Britain and Europe as part of a major international breeding programme.

Dudley Zoo Sumatran triplets, two-year-old Kepala, Pendekar and Indah, have joined leading conservation projects for the highly endangered species.

Female Indah has settled in Howletts Wild Animal Park while brother, Kepala, is based at Chester Zoo. Male Pendekar has moved further afield to Lisbon Zoo, in Portugal.

The youngsters' moves allowed their mum, 13-year-old Sarah, to transfer to London Zoo in the hope she will mate with a Sumatran male in the capital's collection.

Deputy curator Matt Lewis said: "London have a genetically important male and female who have never bred, while Dudley Zoo has a good breeding pair, in Sarah and Filon, that have become genetically unimportant because their offspring are now breeding.

"We swapped females with London Zoo in the hope of extending the bloodline of this extremely rare species."

The transfer took several hours to complete, starting with keepers sedating the big cats ready for transporting to their new homes.

Matt added: "Once darting was done the next step was to manoeuvre the cats into crates for transportation. They are incredibly heavy and it took seven men to move Sarah plus a crane to lift the crate out of the landmark Tecton enclosure.

"Thankfully, everything went to plan and Sarah is now settling in at London, while Raika, who is 12, is making herself very much at home at Dudley Zoo."