Animal Directory Featured species in the planned Big Cat Canyon habitat
Sumatran Tiger
Panthera tigris sondaica
CR
Fun facts
- The smallest surviving tiger subspecies — adult males average 100 to 140 kg, an adaptation to the dense Sumatran rainforest where bulk is a liability.
- The only tiger left on the Sunda Islands; its Javan and Balinese cousins were driven extinct in the 20th century, leaving the Sumatran as a single-island endemic.
- Sumatran tigers have unusually narrow, closely-spaced stripes that act as broken-light camouflage against the strong vertical understorey of equatorial rainforest.
- Fewer than 600 are estimated to survive in the wild — Big Cat Canyon's enclosure is built to international zoo-association standards for ex-situ population insurance.
- They are strong swimmers and routinely cross rivers in pursuit of prey; the deck's "glass viewing gallery" pool was designed to let guests watch this rarely-seen big-cat behaviour.
From the master plan
The Sumatran Tiger is the flagship resident of Big Cat Canyon’s deepest enclosure, viewed from the canyon-floor glass gallery and again from the higher rim overlook. The dim, foliage-heavy habitat is staged to recreate the gloom of Sumatran lowland forest, where wild tigers spend most of their lives in dappled half-light.
IUCN status sourced from the Sumatran Tiger (Panthera tigris ssp. sumatrae) assessment (Linkie et al., 2008) on the IUCN Red List — listed as Critically Endangered with a continuing population decline.
Find them in
Zone 03
Big Cat Canyon
Powerful predators, dramatic landscapes, unforgettable encounters
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