Sumatran Tiger Gaia Swims and Plays

Gaia is a 5 year old Sumatran Tiger residing at the Pt. Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma, WA. She weighs about 200 pounds, which is all small as tigers get. The Sumatran tiger is the smallest variety of tiger, especially compared to their Siberian counterparts which can weigh more than 800 pounds!

Someone threw a nearly empty water bottle into Gaia's enclosure to try to get her into the water. I informed zoo officials about this and they took her out of the exhibit and then removed the water bottle, but not before getting some neat video of her.

There are less than 200 of these beautiful tigers in the wild. North America has been tasked with keeping the gene pool healthy for the in captivity tigers. There are less than 50 breedable cats like these on the continent. They are trying to breed her to a 10 year old un-proven breeder named Jaba(I think) but it's not going well. They were put together once immediately the male tried to kill Gaia. Hopefully things will go better for this pair in the future.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• sumatran
• tiger
• endangered
• female
• gaia
• pt
• defiance
• zoo
• tacoma
• wa
• swimming
• swims
• plays
• run
• jump
• leap
• big
• cat
• ladycenu

[7updude]

what was the new toy?

[ladycenu]

Someone had thrown an empty water bottle into the water and the tiger thought it was her new toy.

[Coolkatzattitud]

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!­!!!!!!! i wish i were there!!!! DX owhsfoihedoigjisjhfoihsdofdih sry im obsessed with tigers :D