Monday 04 Aug 2014
Auckland Zoo's Sumatran
tiger Berani, along with his mother Molek and uncle Jaka will dine with
zoo visitors at the Big Cat Breakfast this weekend, which will allow
people to walk through the park with cheetahs and eat breakfast
alongside the tigers. The breakfast aims to raise awareness of issues which threaten the animals.
Human and animal food will be palm-oil free, as one
of the biggest threats to the Sumatran tiger in the wild is habitat loss
as forests are cleared and replaced with palm oil plantations. "These are very, very large tracts of land in
Sumatra [...] what happens is large areas of natural habitat of tigers
and other species is cleared, this means that not only there are less
prey for tigers to eat but their habitat becomes fragmented," says the
zoo's carnivore team leader Lauren Booth.
As well as the destruction
of forests, Sumatran tigers remain prized among poachers. It's estimated
there are fewer than 700 of the big cats left alive. "The
main reason that tigers are poached is that a lot of tiger parts are
used in traditional medicines in various countries around the world, and
also people still think it is a bit of a status symbol to still have a
stuffed tiger or a tigerskin rug within their house," says Ms Booth. "I
think most people are like me around New Zealand that I think tiger
parts belong to tigers and they don't really look good anywhere else."
Berani and his mates will be sure to be looking their best for their breakfast guests this weekend.
- For more information visit the Auckland Zoo website
No comments:
Post a Comment