Animal Diaries Archive

Cub Walks!

18 July 2008

If you have visited the Zoo at some point in the last six months, you may have been lucky enough to see one or more of our six tiger cubs walking in the Zoo!

Here at Australia Zoo, we raise our Tigers from just two weeks of age enabling us to form a strong relationship with each individual. This then allows us to work closely with them for the rest of their lives and ultimately provide them with a better quality of captive life. Perhaps the best form of enrichment we offer our cubs are tiger walks!

We are lucky enough to walk all of our six tiger cubs within the Zoo which is a great way to condition them to new surroundings, people and other animals. It also means that patrons can see these little guys up close and watch them grow over the months into massive cats!

For their very first walk, the cats get to know their boundaries and we communicate via radio to other keepers and staff in the Zoo so that we can navigate around potential ‘hazards’.

We also provide the cats with a lot of reassurance when they are unsure of something, and lots of praise when they do something right!

So next time you visit, keep your eye out for one or more mischief makers that may be roaming the shuttle track…hurry though- they are growing fast!