Close Encounters of the Furry Kind
December29
One of the crazy things they have for tourists here is the opportunity to see and be right beside a tiger. At first I was not too thrilled, all I could picture was the freak accident that involved one of us. However, these animals have lived their whole lives in captivity and are remarkably tame. It doesn’t hurt either that they are mostly nocturnal and we are visiting them in the heat of the day. The little cubs are the absolute cutest!
The girls even got to feed the baby tigers, they are about 3 months old.
After that Simon and I got to sit with the adult tigers, there were 3 of them. Each male weighed from 150-200 kg. When you are sitting next to one, they are huge! It was a pretty cool experience!
Amazing!!!! I had a similar experience with cheetahs in Kenya, Africa. I actually paid a guy to let me in the cage where they were… it was a little crazy when I look back on it!!! lol They are not as big as tigers though but impressive enough. xo
The training with Tomas the Wildcat must have come in handy for the girls. Those cubs are cute! Were the big guys soft? Happy 2011.
The sad thing about these tigers is (as seen in a documentation) that they are under drugs, so that they cannot hurt any visitor….
So, from the animal welfare aspect, not that good…
Yes, Mario, sadly some places do drug their tigers, such as at the ‘Tiger Temple’. I was sceptical as well and did some research, this place that we went to, ‘Tiger Kingdom’, has a clean record for not drugging their animals. I can say from my own observations that some tigers are sleeping, as most cats do in the daytime heat; but others are alert, jumping in and out of a swimming pool and moving around; not looking drugged. The baby cubs are definitely playful and some woke up when we were with them and immediately started playing with each other. The cats are well cared for and have been with humans their whole lives. They are fed twice daily, so they are not hungry and actually enjoy being stroked, especially on the tummy. There are fairly strict guidelines on how you can act near the tigers so as not to excite them and a trainer is right beside you and establishes contact first. It was an awesome experience.
Yes, Lea, the mighty Tomas would be no match for those kittens! Surprisingly, the big cats’ fur was quite coarse. The tail certainly packs a wallop though, I got flicked in the head a few times!
What beautiful animials!
wow…absolutely incredible!!!! The just look so cute and fuzzy…would love to just cuddle up into a ball next to one of them (assuming they had full bellies and were not interested in me for next breakfast!)
Whoa Pauline! First you’re ‘not too thrilled’ then you’re eating the tail. I don’t know…
I’ve been considering getting a cat. If you have any extra luggage space, could you bring me home one of these. I’m sure immigration won’t have a problem with it 🙂
No problem, Pete. I think we can sneak the 200kg bag past the airlines without any troubles.