Animal Diaries Archive

On its last legs

28 July 2006

No, it's not any of our animals but rather a toy that has been in the big cat family right from the start. When our first litter of tiger cubs arrived in late 2003, an old tractor tyre was donated as a toy for when the cats mature. Unable to wait that long, some of the handlers gave the tyre to the cats at an early age.

When the tigers were cubs; the tractor tyre was the right size for a great hiding spot. All of the cubs enjoyed hiding in the tyre - none more so than Ranu. Ranu thought he was rather clever hiding from all the other tigers!

The trouble with the tyre being accessible to the tigers from an early age is that the novelty wore off after a few months. It wasn't until recently that the tigers have started to use this toy again, except the tigers are now a lot bigger and possess a lot of strength. The tractor tyre is now almost ripped in half, but that doesn't seem to stop them destroying it even more. If you visit the Zoo in the coming weeks then you may see the tigers destroying one of our longest serving toys. By the looks of it there isn't long left in this toy,but we won't throw it out -  rather, we’ll use the rubber in some other toy creation!