Amur tiger – Pain In The Bud

Up Close With The Bronx Zoo’s Baby Snow Leopard And Tigers

An unseasonably warm November day presented a great opportunity to visit the world-class zoo right in my backyard.

The Bronx Zoo’s newest resident is Sarka, a baby snow leopard. While Sarka was snoozing away the early afternoon, I was lucky enough to catch her mother, Dari, gently grooming the five-month-old cub.

Sarka means “shark” in Nepali, and her elusive species live high in the mountains of Nepal, Mongolia, Pakistan, India and China. Often called “ghosts of the mountains” thanks to their ability to evade detection and the remote locales they haunt, snow leopards are extremely well-adapted to the cold and can jump a remarkable 50 feet in a single bound.

Clouded leopard grooming another clouded leopard among rocks and foliage — Credit: Pain In The Bud

The proud mom is doing a great job taking her of her daughter, but managed to take a few minutes for herself as she sat down a pace away and began to relax.

Dari and Sarka have their own enclosure and I was fortunate enough to get as close as possible despite the crowds. I’d forgotten schools were off, and lots of families took the opportunity to visit the zoo on a remarkably warm November day.

Snow leopard resting among rocks in a shaded enclosure — Credit: Pain In The Bud

A snow leopard resting on the ground among rocks and fallen leaves — Credit: Pain In The Bud

Because Sarka didn’t stir from her nap during my visit, here’s a photo of her with her mom via the Wildlife Conservation Society, the non-profit that runs the zoo:

Two snow leopards interacting on a fallen log among rocky terrain. — Credit: Wildlife Conservation Society

Occupying the enclosure between the red panda and the snow leopards in the zoo’s Himalayan Highlands section was this Temminck’s tragopan, a type of pheasant. Her feather colors mark her as female in contrast to the bright plumage of male tragopans. The species is native to the mountain forests of Asia.

A patterned pheasant standing on a fallen log in a woodland setting — Credit: Pain In The Bud

As is my custom, I spent most of my time at the big cat exhibits.

The lions occupy a large, grassy enclosure that mimics the savanna they’d normally call home, which means they have the option to ignore zoo guests and do their own thing. Every time I’ve been to the Bronx Zoo they’ve been far in the distance, and that was true this time too. Most were in their dens, leaving a lone male laying out in the grass with his back to visitors, making it clear he didn’t want to know anything or see anyone. And that’s cool. I’m glad the lions have the option to do that, even if it doesn’t make for the best photo opportunities.

Tiger Mountain is a different matter. Two Amur (Siberian) tigers were on the prowl in separate enclosures. In the larger of the two, a massive male put on a show for visitors as he scent-marked his territory, dousing a pair of trees with projectile urine before making a circuitous route that avoided the part of the enclosure near the viewing area.

I waited quite a while and was considering moving to the next enclosure when the big guy decided to strut his stuff, walking right past the big glass windows.

A Bengal tiger walking through a leafy forest enclosure — Credit: Pain In The Bud

I know they’d never allow me to do it, and if I tried they’d throw me out of the zoo in about two nanoseconds, but I enjoyed the idea of bringing Bud to Tiger Mountain and holding him up to watch the passing tiger. Either he’d freak out or he’d try to paw bump the big cat. Could go either way, really.

Unfortunately there was only so much I could do about the smudges and dirt that had accumulated on the thick glass in some areas, which is why parts of these photos look blurry:

Tiger walking through a wooded enclosure near a large rock — Credit: Pain In The Bud

Bengal tiger walking through a forest covered in autumn leaves — Credit: Pain In The Bud

This red panda apparently took a cue from the lions and didn’t even move a limb during the 15 minutes I watched and waited. Can you imagine sleeping like that?

Red panda resting on a tree branch in a forest enclosure — Credit: Pain In The Bud

Stone monument with a carved human face surrounded by autumn foliage and bamboo — A Cambodian temple-style structure near the entrance to the Asia section of the park. Credit: Pain In The Bud

The geladas were apparently having some sort of meeting far up in the hills of their sizable enclosure, but this rock hyrax wandered right up to me and allowed me to snap a few close shots of her doing something hyraxian before someone’s kid pounded on the glass and sent her scurrying.

Brown rodent standing on rocks in a grassy outdoor habitat — Credit: Pain In The Bud

Brown wombat sniffing the grass beside a log outdoors — Credit: Pain In The Bud

Once again I failed to bring the right lens to get decent shots of the giraffes and other animals who occupy large exhibits and often congregate in the distance. I tried to compensate by shooting in RAW format to capture more detail and crop if need be, but quickly ran out of storage on my Canon’s card and had to rely on my Galaxy smartphone camera for the last couple exhibits.

A group of giraffes walking through a wooded zoo enclosure in autumn. — Credit: Pain In The Bud

We’ll end with this fine fellow. Not a great shot from my phone cam, but I think he captures the spirit of the season with his languid movements and refusal to budge from the apparently comfortable dip in the ground he’d claimed. It’s 65 degrees in mid-November, but someone forgot to tell this bear. He looks ready to zonk out for the season.

Brown bear resting in a rocky enclosure beside a metal barrier. — Credit: Pain In The Bud

UK Man ‘Bowed Down’ To Tiger While Livestreaming Own Death: Police

The visitor’s strange behavior and the crowd’s panicked screams began to override the tiger’s initial confused curiosity, prompting his predatory instincts to kick in.

A British man killed this weekend by a zoo tiger was mentally “vulnerable” and behaved bizarrely before and during his grisly encounter, police and witnesses said.

William Chapman, described in media reports as “in his early 20s,” was seen laughing and dancing before he hopped the barriers separating guests at Yorkshire Wildlife Park from its Land of the Tigers exhibit.

Chapman suffered from “significant mental illness,” his family wrote in a statement.

In audio captured a few minutes before Chapman’s 1:30 pm death on Oct. 10, the late Briton handed his smartphone to another visitor and asked the woman to take photos of him with the tiger in the background.

“Thank you, lady,” he’s heard saying on the recording before he climbed the barriers in front of horrified guests and dropped into the enclosure housing Altai, an Amur tiger who just turned five years old about two weeks ago.

A close-up of a tiger resting on the grass, showcasing its distinctive orange and black stripes, with a focused gaze. — Altai. Credit: Yorkshire Wildlife Park

The encounter took an even stranger turn from there as Chapman, who was live-streaming to Instagram, seemed to welcome Altai. The curious big cat hopped down from a wooden platform where he’d been soaking up the sun and padded unhurriedly toward Chapman, who spread his arms theatrically.

“It looked like a performance,” bystander Anthony Hunt said. “He got down where everyone could see him in the main viewing area. He was on all fours, praying and bowing down to the tiger. It was like he was waiting for the tiger.”

Still images show Altai standing in a confused, non-aggressive posture, with telltale “helicopter ears” indicating curiosity and hesitation about how to respond.

Chapman’s behavior didn’t fit Altai’s cognitive script.

The tiger’s hardwired instincts told him incursions from other members of his species are threats. His experiences in captivity told him humans are caretakers who show up at predictable times as part of a daily routine to feed him, repair his enclosure or introduce enrichment items. This was something entirely new.

A person kneels on grass while interacting with a large tiger in a natural setting. — A still from footage recorded by a witness to Saturday afternoon’s fatal encounter.

While I’ve learned my lesson when it comes to watching video of things I can’t unsee and have no desire to watch footage of a man’s life ending in a violent mauling, I did watch short clips of the preceding moments. They were compiled from recordings by bystanders and Chapman’s own feed.

The moment the situation changed was unambiguous, and you can see exactly when Altai became overstimulated and his predatory drive kicked in: Chapman dropped to all fours, reducing his physical profile until he resembled prey, and the panicked screams from the crowd of onlookers pushed Altai into overstimulation and hypervigilance.

He knew the encounter had taken a turn, and that’s when he took his first few exploratory swipes, still pulling his punches as he tried to figure out what was happening.

Chapman responded by assuming a defensive posture, raising a finger to the big cat while shouting “No! No!” and chiding him for being “naughty.” To the tiger, Chapman confirmed he was prey.

At the same time the screams from above grew louder. Altai’s predatory instincts were fully engaged, and according to reports that’s when he mauled Chapman and delivered a kill bite to the UK man’s neck.

A young man with short hair and earbuds stands in front of a panoramic landscape featuring rolling hills and lush greenery. — Chapman’s family said he was taking “strong medication” to help manage mental health issues.

Zookeepers who rushed to the scene fired warning shots, sending Altai scurrying for the safety of his den. A medical airlift helicopter arrived a few minutes later, but by then it was too late. Chapman had bled out and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Authorities erected screens to conceal the carnage as staff closed the zoo. Footage of guests leaving showed bystanders in shock, discussing what they’d just witnessed as they shuffled through the exit.

One woman, a mother who tried to stop Chapman from leaping, was particularly disturbed. She did not speak to reporters.

Chapman “looked like he was taking selfies” after dropping into the habitat, 21-year-old Scarlet Hogan told The Telegraph.

“Up until he got attacked, it was like he was in a trance, not in reality at all,” Hogan said.

“He had arms wide open ready for the tiger to attack him. It was quite bad. We were just stood there, frozen… the last thing we saw was the tiger’s jaw on his neck.”

Altai pictured in promotional material for the park.

Chapman, who had traveled from nearby Doncaster to the zoo, was an actor who had roles in productions by the BBC and ITV.

“The man who I saw on the bridge with his AirPods in, dancing, was happily enjoying seeing the tiger,” witness Marie Miller said.

Park staff said Altai, whose subspecies is critically endangered, will not be euthanized, and witnesses who spoke to the BBC said staff promptly took control and shut the park down.

Neither the zoo nor the tiger were at fault, said the University of Reading’s Campbell Murn, a former member of the UK government’s Zoo Experts Committee.

“I view it in the same way a determined thief will get into somebody’s house or somebody’s car,” Murn said, “and despite the best security systems and enclosures sometimes these things happen.”

‘We Have To Do A Better Job Of Making Sure People Understand These Are Not Disney Animals’: Your Latest Reminder That Tigers Aren’t Cuddly

Wild animals, particularly wild predators, cannot be befriended, and encounters with them rarely end well for people.

David Villalobos told detectives he wanted to be “one with the tiger.”

So the New York man jumped off the monorail at the Bronx Zoo and into the Wild Asia exhibit, where his 10-minute encounter with a tiger named Bashuta resulted in a punctured lung, a broken arm, and bite wounds on his arms, legs, shoulders and back.

Mercifully, and contrary to his nature as a predator, Bashuta did not kill Villalobos, and while Villalobos almost got his wish “to be one with” the male Siberian tiger, his consolation prize was life – and a trespassing charge from the NYPD.

I remember the 2012 incident well because I was working as a reporter for Newsday at the time and I was in the newsroom the night it happened, placing calls to Villalobos’ family and neighbors in an attempt to understand why he’d willingly enter an apex predator’s enclosure.

On Saturday a UK man — whose name has not been publicly released yet by authorities — jumped into the tiger enclosure at the UK’s Yorkshire Wildlife Park. He wasn’t as lucky, and zoo visitors filmed the last few moments of his life as the big cat — also an endangered Siberian (Amur) — mauled him.

A still image of a video that shows the last few moments of the UK man’s life after he hopped barriers to enter a tiger habitat at Yorkshire Wildlife Park on Oct. 10.

Like the incident at the Bronx Zoo, the enclosure at Yorkshire Wildlife Park had adequate barriers and the man circumvented several of them to put himself in danger.

The big cat was unharmed and will not be euthanized. The incident “was in no way the tiger’s fault,” said Ron Magill, a wildlife photographer and communications director for Zoo Miami.

“It’s just so hard to guarantee against someone who’s determined to do something,” Magill told CNN in an interview a few hours after the incident.

The wildlife park was evacuated and remained closed for the weekend. In the meantime, UK authorities asked people not to continue sharing footage uploaded by several bystanders.

“I say this with profound respect for my profession, but we have to do a better job of making people understand these are not Disney animals,” Magill said. “This is not a play exhibit. We do not play with these animals. They are not our pets. And they can be much more dangerous because they have lost that natural fear of people. “

They’re also territorial, and from their perspective their enclosures are their territories. Zoo visitors who drop in are curiosities to explore by pawing at them at best, and uninvited, unwanted invaders at worst.

Tigers are the largest and most dangerous big cats, and Amur (Siberian) tigers are the biggest tiger subspecies in the world. Credit: Lars H Knudsen/Pexels

It’s a lesson quite a few people need to learn, apparently. US national park rangers have been begging people to keep their distance from wild animals over the past few years after several incidents involving tourists approaching dangerous wildlife to pet them, take selfies with them, and generally infringe on their space.

In July, 65-year-old Carl Isom-McDaniel was photographing a bison with his granddaughter when the 2,000 pound animal charged at him and launched him high into the air, using its horns in a display of raw power serving as a reminder that humans are physically nowhere near the top of the food chain.

Isom-McDaniel’s incident, in which he suffered multiple femur fractures among other injuries, happened less than two weeks after a 12-year-old was attacked and hospitalized after getting too close to a bison near Yellowstone’s “mud volcano.”

At the time, park officials noted bison have been involved in more attacks on visitors than any other species in the park.

“They are unpredictable, can run three times faster than humans and will defend their space when threatened,” a statement from the US National Park Service read.

Although it may seem obvious that mixing with predators or even large herbivores is a bad idea, Magill said some people still have the impression they can somehow make friends with wild animals.

That misconception may be compounded by the ubiquity of social media posts showing tourists in Asian wildlife parks, where tigers are often heavily sedated so guests can enter their enclosures to touch them and pose for selfies with them. It is a form of animal abuse by every definition, but some people don’t want to hear that.

“We see this over and over again, people who try to get close to animals, cuddle the animals, thinking … that this is their pet,” Magill said. “That’s not the case. These animals should not be approached.”

Wordless Wednesday: The Glorious Amur Tiger

Today we’re admiring photos of the majestic Amur (Siberian) tiger, a species that has been pulled back from the brink of extinction thanks to the hard work of conservationists.

The Amur tiger, panthera tigris altaica, is the largest subspecies of the largest cat in the world.

Click an image in the gallery to view a higher resolution version:

All images in the gallery above via Wikimedia Commons. Header image via Pexels.

“She’s Like,’Where Are The Snacks?'”: Smithsonian Big Cat Keeper On Working With Tigers And Lions

“Oh my God, this is my job every day!” Charlie Shaw says of his position as a big cat keeper at one of America’s most well-known and well-funded zoos.

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to work with big cats, WTOP has a new interview with Charlie Shaw, a big cat keeper at the Smithsonian National Zoo.

Hint: it involves a lot of meat, physical enrichment, olfactory enrichment, and checking on the felids to make sure they’re healthy.

Shaw starts his day by feeding the hungry apex predators, including Damai, a 16-year-old tiger who wants all the snacks, and Vostok, a fast-growing young Amur tiger who doesn’t know a genetically-compatible mate is arriving in short order, and he’ll get to be a dad if things go well.

The genetic matches are carefully made to avoid inbreeding and give the species the best chance to recover.

“Tigers are critically endangered,” Shaw told WTOP. “What we want to do is make sure the gene pool itself is still very diverse.”

Vostok loves to swim. Credit: Charlie Shaw/Smithsonian National Zoo

Shaw says he’s working his dream job.

“You walk in and the tigers all chuff at you, or the lions roar. And you’re like, ‘Oh, my God, this is my job every day!’”

THAT story

I’m aware of it, and I think every person concerned about the welfare of cats should at least know it’s happening.

But it’s also extremely distressing. I actually had nightmares the night after I read it. So I’m offering a strong warning here: think about it before you click the story. The report is by CNN, so there are no gory images and the reporters aren’t trying to make anyone uncomfortable, but the reality of it is bad enough.

For everyone who doesn’t want to know the more upsetting details, the essence of it is that there’s a network of people making “content” of themselves torturing and killing cats, and a rapidly growing audience of people who pay thousands of dollars to “sponsor” the horrific content.

They have “menus” set up where people can select the cat they want to see tortured and specify the ways in which the cat should be hurt and killed. CNN, citing a group of vigilantes trying to dismantle the networks, says people pay up to $1,300 for the “service.” Collectively, the torturers and their audience refer to themselves as “cat lovers.”

The Chinese government, to no one’s surprise, does not care. There are no criminal penalties for what the content producers are doing, and the government hasn’t responded to complaints from concerned people or media networks.

I might address it in the future, but for now I don’t even know what to say. I was away when I read it, and it made me really want to hug Bud and make sure he’s never out of my care. Ever.