TACOMA, Wash. – The Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium hopes love will be in the air when it welcomes a new Sumatran tiger this Valentine’s Day week.
Malosi, a male tiger from Honolulu Zoo, is coming to Tacoma on Wednesday. It’s hoped he will breed with Jaya, the zoo’s female tiger and mother of the two tiger cubs born in 2010.
There are about 200 Sumatran tigers in zoos around the world, including 70 in the United States. Point Defiance Zoo has three of the tigers: Jaya, her year-and-half old cub Bima and his father Bali.
“The Sumatran tiger is critically endangered and we are working hard to protect and boost the population of this extraordinary species,” said the zoo’s general curator Karen Goodrowe Beck.
The name Malosi means strong and powerful in Samoan.
To add a comment, please register or login.