Week 230 (18 to 24 January 2008)

A boring week

Since the tigers were fed a wildebeest carcass last week, they became quite lazy this week, especially TigerWoods and Cathay. They got the most food which was enough for them to eat for 5 or 6 days. They spent most of the time sleeping. The interesting thing was that when they slept together, they loved to hold each other in their paws, face to face, being very intimate. It rained quite a lot on Monday and Tuesday. The tigers became more active. TigerWoods went to Cathay and tried to play with her several times. Both of them stood up on their hind legs and played boxed. Then both of them went along the fence in the direction of 40 ha camp, scent marking on the way. They paced along the fence of the 40 ha camp for a while, before coming back to the quarantine camp, chasing each other from the drainage line to the fence. It seemed that TigerWoods was quite interested in things in the 40 ha camp. When he was not with her , Cathay focussed her attention on Madonna. They paced together and rolled on the ground in front of each other. It is still unclear what this behaviour means. As for 327, he lived in his own world and ignored the other tigers completely.

Madonna and 327 was each fed a springbok carcass on Monday. On Thursday morning, all the tigers were fed again. Madonna appeared not to like the staff. When they entered the breeding centre, Madonna became very tense and kept roaring at them. Meanwhile, in the quarantine camp, TigerWoods and Cathay excitedly played with each other, play boxing on their hind legs many times. When they slapped each other, they kept chuffing at each other as if saying “Don’t hit hard, it’s just playing”. Two male springbok carcasses were put in the 4 ha camp and once the gate was opened again, both of them ran to the carcasses immediately. TigerWoods got the closer carcass and Cathay got the furthest one. However TigerWoods ran to Cathay immediately and grabbed her carcass and took it to the drainage line. Cathay followed him and both of them didn’t appear again. As to the other springbok carcass which TigerWoods first got, it seemed that it had been forgotten. When the sliding gate of the breeding centre was opened, Madonna ran out of the cage immediately. She turned her attention to the springbok carcass in the 4 ha camp which had been forgotten by TigerWoods and Cathay. She kept pacing along the fence, but totally ignored her own food which was still lying on the floor in the breeding centre.