Week 207 (10th – 16th August 2007)

Actions that look and sound like mating, but were they the real thing?

Cathay and TigerWoods stayed together in the 4 ha camp for the entire week.
They continued to have playful interaction all week long, playing, stalking and generally getting on very well with each other.

For the first three days, they also continued their sexual interaction.
TigerWoods continued to mount Cathay for at least 6 times a day. Quite a few times the interaction resulted in both tigers roaring quite loudly and a lot of slapping and aggression displayed after the event. TigerWoods’ posture has also improved quite a lot, but whether real and complete penetration occurred is very hard to say, because the duration of the mating behaviour was never longer than a couple of seconds. Cathay’s next oestrus cycle will indicate whether mating has occurred successfully or not. If she has been impregnated, she will not display sexual behaviour in about 28 – 34 days, so she will be monitored very closely.

It really is a tough life for the male tigers at Laohu Valley! They are treated as mere sex objects by Cathay. Poor TigerWoods seemed exhausted by day four and in fact did not have any energy left to mount or play with Cathay. This again frustrated Cathay tremendously, resulting in her mounting him!

327 had a frustrating week seeing that some modifications were made to the breeding centre, resulting in him having to spend long periods of time locked in the inside cages. Now that the weather is warming up, he is also being left outside in the quarantine camp overnight and not being allowed into the centre during the night. It is time for him to become less of a zoo tiger and get accustomed to the great outdoors.

An attempt was made to introduce Madonna into the quarantine camp to meet 327 through the bars of the centre, but for once she was too scared of the gate leading into the quarantine camp to even attempt to cross it. She also smelt around continuously, most probably as a result of 327’s markings and this made her even more reluctant to enter. Her oestrus cycle is also at an end for now, so another attempt to introduce her to 327 will again be attempted once she shows signs of being in oestrus again.