Ceylon

Panthera tigris - TIGER

This beautiful tigress is Ceylon. Her sister Jasmine and brother Shirkon.

were placed in other zoos, as babies, to spread out the gene pool.

Her other brother is "Prince Ali" who also lives here at the Zoo.

Her sister Sitarra was born with a bad heart and passed away at 4 1/2 weeks of age.

Ceylon's "almost" claim to fame was when she a scripted as a talent for a photo shoot with Bruce Willis.

We trained on "come", "sit", " lay down", "stay", and "Don't Eat the Actor!"

A smaller and more dangerous set of cubs ended up getting the job.

Bengal Tigers are one of the last remaining tiger sub-species and number around 2,000.

The males weigh up to 500 pounds in the wild, the females 400.

In captivity they are larger and we expect Ali to be as big as his father, Stoli, who weighs 600 pounds.

Ceylon will weighs 450 pounds as an adult. They have a life span of 25 years in captivity.

Since tigers are "roaring cats", they can not purr, yet they make a friendly noise that is called a "chuffle".

If you shave the fur off of a tiger they will have stripes on their skin. Their fur length varies with the seasons.

Their whiskers are as wide as their shoulders. These sensitive feelers are made

of the same material as our finger nails and will tell the tiger if their shoulders

will fit between the trees. This helps in the careful stalking of their prey.