Amidst the ruins of a temple right out of the pages of Rudyard Kipling's classic, The Jungle Book, visitors will come eye to eye with the Sumatran Tigers, one of the world's most endangered species with only 500 living in the wild.
As their name suggests, they are native to the Indonesian island of Sumatra, and are the smallest of the 5 remaining sub species of tiger. (The others being the Siberian or Amur Tiger, the Bengal Tiger, the Indo Chinese Tiger and the South Chinese or Amoy Tiger) Unfortunately in the past 70 years, 3 other sub species have become extinct.
Meet the Tigers
Ratna and Batu arrived at Chessington Zoo in February 2004 as part of a vital Endangered Species Breeding Programme. In 2006 Ratna gave birth to 3 cubs named Hujan, Bayu and Deru, which mean storm, thunder and rain in Indonesian and only a month after the three were moved to their new home in Holland, two new cubs were born. The cubs, born in February 2008, are called Kabus and Kelabus, which mean grey and mist in Malay.
Book your visit now, or for the chance to get even more involved, see our information about Zoo Keeper for a Day, Animal Parties and Adoption packages.
Sumatran Tigers can be found in Trail of the Kings.
