Shere Khan is probably one of our best known and most loved animals. It is a toss up as to who is bigger, Shere Khan or Nikita the tiger, but his heart is so big that it is legendary.
Today Dr. Wynn stitched up a scrape on his leg and removed a tumor that was growing under his tongue that was about the size of a grape. It is a testament to the amazing observation skills of our Keepers that so many noticed it. It was UNDER his tongue!
We will send it out for testing and drew blood for other studies, gave him a micro chip and his vaccinations and he should be fine to release back into his Cat-a-tat tomorrow.
He did not wake up fully enough to keep his new stitches dry in this heavy rain, so he is waking up in the Cat Hospital.
Nik the tiger has been moved to the Shere Khan and China Doll side and China Doll has been moved to Nik’s side in the hopes that more space for this duo will stop the agitation they have at seeing Nikita. Volunteers have hung three layers of shade cloth, but they still do their best to see each other across the long, wide hallway that separates the 3 ac enclosure from the 1 ac one.
He seems to be waking up well, breathing well and we hope he will be ready to move back outside tomorrow morning.
Shere Khan is a HUGE boy. Those paws are enormous in size. I hope he has a speedy recovery and is back to his usual tiger-y ways SOON. Thanks BCR for taking such GOOD care of the tigers and it shows… something so small in a HUGE TIGER with a HUGE mouth like Shere Khan’s… whomever noticed it… you’re a hero. You guys are the reason I have hope for the big cat population.