Siberian tigers starve to death at a Shenyang zoo
- Source: Global Times
- [13:58 March 12 2010]
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At least 11 Siberian tigers starved to death in a zoo in Shenyang, northeast China's Liaoning Province after the zoo owners ran out of money and fed the wild cats just one or two sets of chicken bones a day in the past three months. There were also reports 30 other animals were also starved to death.
Six of the tigers died recently in one day at the privately-owned Shenyang Forest Wild Animal Zoo, the Liaoshen Daily reported. The zoo is in dire financial straits and hasn’t been able to provide the tigers with sufficient food for the past two years.
The animals have also been confined in small and wet cages. It is not the first time the zoo was in the news for letting its tigers to go hungry.
Two tigers at the zoo were shot by police in November last year after the hungry animals mauled a zoo worker as he was clearing snow from a path. One newspaper reported at the time that the tigers were starving.
The tragedy comes just days after a wild tiger cub – the first to be seen in China for at least 60 years – was found trapped in a forestry worker's woodpile in a neighboring province to the north. The cub was tranquillized and captured but died two days later.
When the zoo was established in 2000 it had a total of 1,024 animals, with 61 different species, but now there are only 518 animals, and 49 species left as of February 8 this year.
Only about 20 of the rare endangered Siberian tigers are believed to be living in the wild along China's border with Russia. The South China tiger is believed to be close to extinct.
