Tiger Swap at ABQ BioPark Supports Breeding Program

Posted By : The Animal Facts Editorial Team

Date: March 20, 2021 10:40 am

The eastern massasauga rattlesnake hatchlings at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium

Photo Credit: Bunga at the Dickerson Park Zoo. Photo courtesy of Jackson Thompson.

The ABQ BioPark Zoo recently undertook a tiger swap moving their resident Malayan tiger Penari to the Bronx Zoo on Tuesday and welcoming Bunga from the Dickerson Park Zoo.

Penari had lived at ABQ BioPark since February 2017. Penari and Bunga are brothers who were born in 2011 in West Palm Beach, Florida and came to Jacksonville Zoo in 2013.

These moves were part of the Species Survival Plan, a program managed by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). This bring together accredited members of the AZA to breed a sustainable and genetically diverse population of tigers and raise awareness of their plight.

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Visitors can now meet Bunga on the Catwalk where he is currently settling in to his new habitat and meeting his caretakers.

Malayan tigers are classed as critically endangered in the wild and fewer than 200 are though to remain. They live in the southern and central areas of the Malay Peninsula in Southeast Asia.

Currently 51 Malayan tigers are part of the Species Survival Plan.