Staff Reports
With its official opening last month, the Palm Beach Zoo’s new Tiger Forest includes a series of viewing experiences that allow visitors to experience Malayan Tigers up close.
The exhibit, home to three Tigers named Api, Kadar and Olan, includes large catwalks above a visitor viewing area that gives wildlife lovers a new vantage point to enjoy these endangered animals. The exhibit also includes a tiger retreat, like bedrooms on the property.
Experiences are also available to watch zookeepers feed the tigers raw meat, and ask questions.
Olan is the newest member of the Palm Beach Zoo tiger family. The 10-year-old male joined the zoo in January from El Paso Zoo.
Malayan Tigers are critically endangered, with fewer than 300 currently surviving in the wild, according to Project Endangered Tigers.
As early as the 1950s, there were as many as 3,000 Malayan Tigers roaming the large cats’ native Malaysian Peninsula. But with extensive development in the area, deforestation and the belief that the tigers were more like pests to be hunted and killed, the population declined rapidly. Malayan Tigers didn’t earn official protection until 1972.
Malayan Tigers are the smallest of continental tiger species, including Siberian and Bengal Tigers. But they are larger than Sumatra Tigers, now known as Sunda.
The Palm Beach Zoo has dedicated itself to saving tigers in Malaysia, through support to a conservation project in Kenyir-Taman Negara through partner Panthera Malaysia. The project seeks out wild tigers in the region and protects them from illegal poaching activity, including through remote wildlife trail cameras that collect data and monitor the tiger population’s health, while detecting poaching activity.
Since 2014, the project has helped lead to 37 poachers being arrested, according to the Palm Beach Zoo. Additionally, the project has trained more than 50 park rangers and managers on field data collection, patrolling efficiency, and improved communication with stakeholders such as state and federal government agencies and local tiger conservation groups.
In addition to its regular exhibit, the Palm Beach Zoo also offers a tiger experience as an upgrade to admission that allows visitors to more closely monitor the animals and be able to interact with zoologists about the tigers, their care and other information. In some cases, animal interaction is possible during experiences, though it is not guaranteed, as the animals aren’t always interested.
The zoo held a Grand Opening event last month, which included tiger chats with zoologists, up-close viewings, a tiger-themed menu and signature cocktails, a DJ dance party and a tiger costume contest, according to WPTV.
