Endangered big cats swap homes

ROB KIDD

Last updated 28/11/2013

Hamilton and Auckland zoos will pull a striped switcheroo today.

Male sumatran tigers Oz and Jaka will travel in opposite directions along State Highway 1 to swap homes in a bid to help further the international breeding programme for the critically-endangered big cat. The key move is for 9-year-old Oz - who relocated from Tel Aviv to Auckland in 2006 and fathered Auckland Zoo's first tiger cubs in 2008 - to Hamilton Zoo to be paired up with 5-year-old Sali.

Due to poaching, loss of rainforest habitat from illegal logging and expansion of the palm oil industry, there are now fewer than 400 sumatran tigers remaining in the wild.

Zoos throughout Australasia, America, Europe, Japan and Indonesia are working together to manage an insurance population of sumatran tigers - around 300 animals.

Both Oz and Jaka have been trained to walk into custom-built crates for their 90-minute road trips.
The day-long moving operation will see Oz transported to Hamilton Zoo late in the morning, and then the Auckland Zoo keepers will return with Jaka in the afternoon.

Hamilton Zoo curator Samantha Kudeweh said staff were very excited about their first opportunity to contribute to the conservation effort.

"Sali is a very popular tiger with all who get to know her.
"She is a lovely, playful young female, and we're very hopeful that she will prove to be a good mother," Mrs Kudeweh said.

Auckland Zoo's carnivore team leader Bruce Murdock said the move was a great team effort for a species that urgently needs all the help it can get.
Following his quarantine at Auckland Zoo, Jaka will be on public display around Christmas, he said.

Kudeweh said Oz will be on public display within a few days of his arrival, and breeding plans will progress slowly throughout next year, and be led by the behaviour of both tigers.

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