Tale of Two Tigers and Two Different Fates

This is one of the activities you can do at the tiger gallery and exhibit at Oriental Village, Langkawi.

Anyone who is willing to contribute RM100 will have the opportunity to hand feed the tigeress. Would that someone wants to risk it for a RM100? Why not? They mentioned clearly that safety would not be compromised. Eh... contradiction?

I'm sure Zanah the tigeress is very much trained, tame and wouldn't mind at all. Don't you think by doing that, someone  may get the incorrect message and have a wrong impression of a tiger? 

I was told by a friend who was there recently on how Zanah performed her lunch stunt during the feeding time. Several parts of chickens were hidden and Zanah was released to sniff and find her feed. Sounds like fun?

Here is another story about a captive tiger in A'Formasa, Melaka. However, this tiger in A'Formosa was not as "glamorous" as the tigeress in Langkawi. Two friends of mine sent me this link.

A very disheartening scene to see that tiger which represented our Malaysian coat-of-arms is disgraced and humiliated. That video was recorded 3 months ago during the Chinese New Year period.  You can tell from the background music. Oh my... on the auspicious year of the Tiger. 

Do allow me to translate the short conversation recorded between the two girls spoken in Cantonese.

1st girl: "Stop videoing! What the hell for?!"

2nd girl: "Wish to let people see how they abused the tiger".

1st girl: "Lets expose them...  hahahaha"

2nd girl: "Ya-lah... let's see how A'formosa abused it".

Later, one of the girls said: "Why they can record and we can't??"

Then a male voice came in.

He said: "Oh they are the crew team."

Girl said: "I know"

He said: "They are videoing this to sell".

Later, the girls were commenting how the staff was pulling the tiger's face and whiskers. One of the girls spoke in Malay telling that staff to stop the act. Obviously he ignored and the girls were trying to educate that ignorant staff on our nation's endangered tigers population. Bravo to these two girls! 

I have no idea who these girls were but I must thank them for bringing this up to the public awareness.

When will these Perhilitan people step in and have the balls to take real actions?

... Read full post ...

Langkawians Can View the Tiger Now

Announcement! Announcement! 
Tiger show in Oriental Village, Langkawi is now open for public viewing. It has been opened since early April 2010.

Photo contributed by M

Admission fee for now is FREE and public can put their contribution into a donation box.


Sad...Sad... Sad...


... Read full post ...

Tiger Show Will Go On

Tiger Blogfest 2010 has started this week from April 19-23 2010, initiated and brainchild of His Royal Highness Monyet King or a blogger simply known as Planet of the Monyets. 

Since the heat is on, I wish to jump on the wagon by rambling about our Langkawi's only tiger.

Most people know that tigers are not found on Langkawi. The picture above was taken by M during her visit at Oriental Village last August. Here is our story: Over here kitty, kitty

What had happened from there?

To make the story short... MYCAT came to know and helped to investigate. Perhilitan (Wildlife Department) confirmed the owner of this tiger in captivity has all the legal papers and documents. Therefore, this tiger stays. How and when the tiger was brought in? Don't know.

My main concern is: 

Does Langkawi need a tiger or two for tourists attraction when tigers are not native on the island? 

Not knowing how much MYCAT has found out, I was eventually told off by MYCAT that I must not get them involved in this case. This is because they have a bigger picture, bigger issues to deal with. Is MYCAT right? Maybe. What is ONE LEGAL tiger in captivity as compared to less than 500 in the wild.

Great. If this issue does not fall under MYCAT jurisdiction, I do not know who else could help.  How about the media? Coincidentally, Hillary Chiew of The Star was pursuing her articles on Anson Wong, the Malaysian King Poacher. I wrote to her a couple of times, hoping that she would help. No replies from her and I was encouraged not to follow up with Hillary.

...few months later since August 2009

The show must go on...

We were back at Oriental Village and found the glass enclosure for the tiger was almost ready.

When will the show start? Don't know but anytime soon. Psst... from the grapevine, another tiger is on its way.

M wrote a letter to the Star, NST, Malaysiakini and only www.ecomalaysia.org helped to publish. Thankfully, our Royal Highness Monyet King came along and helped to highlight it in his blog: http://planetofthemonyets.blogspot.com/2010/03/lone-tiger-in-langkawi.html

Once again, we circulated the letter to the members of Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) Langkawi Chapter. Somehow, a reply came from a Programme Assistant of the East and South East Asia Conservation Programme, Zoological Society of London. These were her interesting comments that was circulated to members of MNS:

"There is no need to rehabilitate this tiger as captive tigers play a very important role in tiger conservation.  A good captive tiger exhibit can educate, inspire and help raise awareness about the plight of wild tigers.  

In addition, it would not be possible to rehabilitate this tiger because all Sumatran tigers in Malaysian zoos have been genetically tested and verified to be hybrids.  The tiger at Langkawi is a descend of tiger 974, who was part Indochinese tiger.  Therefore, the tiger at Langkawi is not a purebred Sumatran tiger, but rather a Sumatran-Indochines e hybrid.

In regards to husbandry and good exhibit plans, I will send you a link to the book Management and Conservation of Captive Tigersby R. Tilson, G. Brady, K. Traylor-Holzer, and D. Armstrong (eds.). Minnesota Zoo: Apple Valley, MN, 1994: 1-136. 2nd edition.  This is an excellent resource which should help you find out all you need to know tiger enclosures and anything else you might have questions about regarding keeping tigers in captivity.

Book link: http://www.tigerlin k.com/husbandry/ husman.htm   "

So, what does that mean? 

Has it been DNA proven that this tiger on Langkawi is a hybrid?

Sadly, there were some MNS members who were happy with that information and applauded the sender for sharing that. From those responses, it left me and M wondering:

So, it is OK for Langkawians to have captive tigers in Langkawi then. As long as the tiger is well kept and well groomed?

Since the HUGE task of bringing in an elephant to Oriental Village was a peanut, why not tigers? And these will be next on their list: Rhinocerous, Orang Utan, Tembadau, Probosis Monkeys,  Tapir, and a Dodo bird...

Hey, how about an idea for Langkawi Authority to promote Langkawi as:

"Why travel to both West Malaysia and Borneo when you can see all sorts of wildlife on Langkawi Geopark and the best part of it is, you can view all of them in Oriental Village!"

... Read full post ...

Over here... Kitty, Kitty

What in the world is that animal doing here inLangkawi? I couldn't believe it until M showed me the images she has taken. One of our favourite hobbies is to "slither" away into nice looking trails to take pictures or simply to explore. The famous proverb "Curiosity kills the cat" but M's curiosity found a cat! And is not some ordinary cat!

The cat was hidden behind some bushes on the trail. She managed to sneak quietly behind the bushes and caught the images. M's first thought when she noticed the chain was "Oh Shit.."

The interesting part was it has a short metal chain around it's neck. Attached to the short metal chain was a thin piece of nylon looking rope. Nylon looking rope! Can that hold such super strength tiger?? And the best part was the tiger was not in the cage!

What if that thin rope snapped? Whooaaahhahhhaa... tourists for dinner? Is next to Telaga Tujuh anyway and is peak season now. Sorry, I cannot review the exact location here. Because only M knows.

These questions came into our mind. Who brought the tiger here? How did it pass through the Jabatan Kastam? Any permit to allow that? And why that permit was allowed? How long has it been there!?

M made a call to Perhilitan today and was told that this tiger has a permit to be here and CAGED! What? Why? Why? Well, they said they will check.

The island is not capable to have a zoo to house this poor little tiger! Why allowed such permit? Bloody irresponsible "tong-tong people"!

First was the little Jumbo at the Langkawi cable car Oriental Village and now a huge Kitty next to the Oriental Village. What in the world these "tong-tong brain" people are thinking? Money sucking into their pockets, of course! What if the tiger escapes and starts preying into the kampungs for the cows? Also, what the tourists would think of us when Malaysia preached about tiger conservation.

Anyone wants to bet which park this tiger is going to next? How can we send this tiger back to where it belongs - into the wild?

Thank you very much to M for sharing her images.

... Read full post ...