Article Title: Could the London zoo tiger death have been avoided?
Author: Iliana Magra
Date: February 10, 2019
Abstract
Iliana Magra, a writer, wrote the article on February 10th, 2019. In her article she mentions a recent death of sumatran tigress, Melati. A Sumatran tiger named Asim was brought to the London zoo in order to mate with Melati. The caretakers put both Melati and Asim in separate see through enclosure in order for them to get used to each other’s sight. After 10 days, they were put together in order to mate. Melati couldn’t “survive the encounter and died at 10 years old.”
Main document
In her article, Iliana Magra, she mentions a recent death of sumatran tigress, Melati. A Sumatran tiger named Asim was brought to the London zoo in order to mate with Melati. The caretakers put both Melati and Asim in separate see through enclosure in order for them to get used to each other’s sight. After 10 days, they were put together in order to mate. Melati couldn’t “survive the encounter and died at 10 years old.”
A lot of people questioned the methods that the zoo caretakers used. And the biggest question was, if it was too soon for the wild cats to mate yet. Melati successfully had five cubs with another Sumatran tiger named Jae Jae before. Jae Jae was send to Paris zoo to make a new family there. And Asim was brought to London zoo as a replacement for Jae Jae.
Many critics criticized the workers and researchers of London zoo. There are other methods that could have been used to “increase the population of Sumatran tigers such as, reproductive biotechnology.” Artificial insemination had been used in many zoos in order to save species which are going extinct. Many critics called the methods of London zoo “cruel” and “unbelievable.”
Even though artificial insemination had been used before in many zoos, this method is still not 100% successful. Rather the success rate for this method is very low. Zoological researchers from London zoo stated, that this method wasn’t necessary in the case of Melati because they already had a suitable male tiger to mate with her.
To add on, in order to use the method of artificial insemination, a lot of findings and further research is necessary. So, it might have been a better choice for the zoo to use the old fashion way.
Many also questioned the role of zoo workers and stated that they could have prevented it. The zoo committee indeed tried to save Melati. However, it was way too late.
I believe that it would have been a safer choice if the zoo would have let the tigers encounter after few more day when both Melati and Asim would be more familiar to each other. Jae Jae was taken recently to Paris and probably Melati was too attached to Jae Jae which prevented her to get attach to Asim.
Refeence:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/10/world/europe/london-zoo-tiger.html
