Vote for the name of the baby tiger at Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm

Vote for the name of the baby tiger at Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm

Wednesday, August 05, 2009, 07:00

The baby Bengal Tiger born at Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm in Wraxall still has no name. Today thisisbristol and Evening Post readers have the chance to vote on what he should be called.

The keepers who look after the tiny cub have chosen two names – Tapan and Tumkur – and you can vote online at http://thisisbristol.co.uk to decide which suits him best.

Tapan and Tumkur are both the names of areas in India.

The cub, which weighs just 2lb 3oz, was born on July 29, but his mum Tira rejected him and now staff at the farm are having to hand-rear him, sharing the hourly feeds between the three tiger keepers.

The birth was captured on a webcam set up in the newly opened tiger enclosure and was streamed to an internet audience.

Tira, aged six, gave birth to three cubs but two were sadly stillborn.

Antibodies that help to keep young animals healthy are produced from its mum’s milk.

This is difficult to replicate when hand rearing, making the baby more susceptible to disease, so staff at the zoo have their fingers crossed that their newest arrival will pull through.

You can watch him on the webcam at www.thisisbristol.co.uk/tigers which shows him sleeping, being fed on a mixture of formula milk, protein powder, Jersey milk, cod liver oil, vitamin drops and cat food supplement powder.

He is taken home by keepers at night and on the weekends.

Head keeper Chris Wilkinson, said: “We have installed a webcam to allow us to keep an eye on him throughout the day without constantly having to disturb him.

“To allow visitors to still see the cub we have linked the live webcam to a monitor at the zoo, this allows visitors to see him without risk of infection to the tiger cub. Although he is putting on weight he is still quite fragile and it’s a delicate time.”

The cub will be off show until he is healthy enough, and will eventually move into his own den in the tiger enclosure.

The camera is tiger proof with a plastic covering made out of the same material as police riot shields and has been tested using a sledge hammer.

To vote for your favourite name you can either go to www.thisisbristol.co.uk/tigers or vote by text message with the words BEP Tiger Tapan or BEP Tiger Tumkur, to our special text number 65100.

Messages are charged at your standard network rate. Voting ends at midnight tonight.

Check the Evening Post for the results.

http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/homepage/Vote-baby-tiger-Noah-s-Ark-Zoo-Farm/article-1224910-detail/article.html

http://bigcatrescue.org/