Kala likes to lie down on her father Kasih to cuddle: born three months old at the Rome zoo, this little tiger from Sumatran made her first public appearance on Thursday in front of enthusiastic admirers.
“We learned this yesterday, while we were preparing for our visit to the zoo.
And so today (…) we said to ourselves, hey, we’re going to take a closer look.
And I didn't think it was so small, it's the size of our dog, and it's beautiful!
», Testified Arnaud Champalle, a 41-year-old French tourist, in an interview with AFP-TV.
The tiger on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, one of the smallest subspecies of the tiger family, is considered endangered.
“It is an extremely rare subspecies.
There are around 500 specimens left in the wild,” explained the president of the Rome Zoo Foundation, Paola Palanza, on the occasion of the presentation of the little feline to the public.
“We are very happy with this birth”
“It is therefore very important that zoos contribute to conservation strategies” by creating a gene fund for Sumatran tigers, “if it becomes necessary to repopulate them,” she added.
“We are very happy with this birth.
Three months have passed and she is doing well.
We are happy because there is a family, the dad, the mom and her, who have never been separated,” rejoiced a zoo expert, Yitzhak Yadid.
“And naturally we are all the more happy that we are talking about an endangered species,” he stressed.