A trio of white tigers have arrived in Taranaki and are ready to roar for the public.
The rare white bengals come from Zion Wildlife Gardens in Northland and will live at New Plymouth's Pouakai Zoo for the next year.
Azra, Anila and Kahli, all young females, are three of only 120 white tigers in the world.
They were bred at the wildlife park for their pale fur and light blue eyes, using parents who also had the recessive white gene.
Zookeeper Bart Hartley, who went to Whangarei to pick up the tigers in a truck on Wednesday, said the girls were settling in well at their new home.
Mr Hartley said the trio spent Thursday in their den and were let out into the enclosure for the first time yesterday, to the displeasure of their fellow inhabitants.
"The lions got a bit fired up; they're a bit snarly about the tigers being on their turf," Mr Hartley said, as Aslan the male lion paced up and down his enclosure.
"But the tigers didn't take any notice, they've grown up around lions."
Vervet the monkey was also a bit put out, and barked his thoughts loudly from his pen for most of the morning.
The other monkeys, however, lost interest after only half an hour and went back to looking for food.
Meanwhile, the tigers inspected their den, their tree, their house and their specially-built pool, which proved an instant hit.
The tigers first urinated, then defecated into the pond before happily rolling around in it and drinking the water.
This particularly pleased Mr Hartley, as he spent Thursday cleaning the pond in anticipation of the tigers' release.
The cats will be kept in by a 4-metre fence with electricity running around the top.
They will eat about 4kg of either beef or horse meat each day to power their 150kg frames.
They had to be fed separately, inside, so they didn't fight over the meat.
Mr Hartley said the tigers' arrival hopefully marked the beginning of an ongoing relationship for the zoo with Zion, who were trying to move forward after a series of problems, including the death of a keeper.
The three tigers can be viewed at Pouakai from today.
There will be no interaction with the cats by either the keepers or the public in order to keep everyone safe.
The rare white bengals come from Zion Wildlife Gardens in Northland and will live at New Plymouth's Pouakai Zoo for the next year.
Azra, Anila and Kahli, all young females, are three of only 120 white tigers in the world.
They were bred at the wildlife park for their pale fur and light blue eyes, using parents who also had the recessive white gene.
Zookeeper Bart Hartley, who went to Whangarei to pick up the tigers in a truck on Wednesday, said the girls were settling in well at their new home.
Mr Hartley said the trio spent Thursday in their den and were let out into the enclosure for the first time yesterday, to the displeasure of their fellow inhabitants.
"The lions got a bit fired up; they're a bit snarly about the tigers being on their turf," Mr Hartley said, as Aslan the male lion paced up and down his enclosure.
"But the tigers didn't take any notice, they've grown up around lions."
Vervet the monkey was also a bit put out, and barked his thoughts loudly from his pen for most of the morning.
The other monkeys, however, lost interest after only half an hour and went back to looking for food.
Meanwhile, the tigers inspected their den, their tree, their house and their specially-built pool, which proved an instant hit.
The tigers first urinated, then defecated into the pond before happily rolling around in it and drinking the water.
This particularly pleased Mr Hartley, as he spent Thursday cleaning the pond in anticipation of the tigers' release.
The cats will be kept in by a 4-metre fence with electricity running around the top.
They will eat about 4kg of either beef or horse meat each day to power their 150kg frames.
They had to be fed separately, inside, so they didn't fight over the meat.
Mr Hartley said the tigers' arrival hopefully marked the beginning of an ongoing relationship for the zoo with Zion, who were trying to move forward after a series of problems, including the death of a keeper.
The three tigers can be viewed at Pouakai from today.
There will be no interaction with the cats by either the keepers or the public in order to keep everyone safe.
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