A First Date for Two Rare Tigers Ends in Death

[IronLionZion]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/09/world/europe/london-zoo-tiger.html



LONDON — The courtship went on for 10 whole days. They were kept apart, but tantalizingly close so that each could see, hear and smell the other.

When the matchmakers believed that the time and the place were right — Friday at London Zoo — the rare Sumatran tiger called Asim and a female named Melati were put in the same enclosure together.

He promptly killed her — moments after they were introduced for the first time.

The animal’s handlers scrambled in vain to intervene, the zoo said, “using loud noises, flares and alarms to try and distract the pair, but Asim had already overpowered Melati.”

Keepers eventually were able to shepherd Asim into a separate paddock so that they could safely get to Melati, the zoo said. Vets then confirmed that she had died.

[mr_lebowski]

1. Aw, man ... that is friggin' tragic ...

RIP Melati ... she was so freaking beautiful

BAD ASIM! BAD KITTY!!!

This really breaks my heart ... how could these experts misjudge the situation so badly?

[underpants]

2. MeOW

[Hassin Bin Sober]

3. That sucks

[Rorey]

4. I hope they don't try that again

Poor Melati. Next time maybe artificial insemination might work better.

[No Vested Interest]

5. And I guess we'll never know why......

What is the lesson learned here?

[Renew Deal]

6. Don't give the Bachelor producers any ideas

“For the most dramatic season yet”

[ecstatic]

7. Why didn't they keep her old mate?!

Melati had successfully mated with the zoo's previous male tiger, Jae Jae. They shipped him off to France then immediately tried to pair her with a new mate. Maybe it doesn't work like that in the tiger world, just like it wouldn't work like that with most humans. For all Melati knew, this new tiger was responsible for Jae Jae's disappearance.

The zoo's previous male, Jae Jae - which had fathered seven cubs previously with Melati - was moved to French zoo Le Parc des Félins, on 30 January.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-47170454

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. Pecker prolly has photos. n/t

[happybird]

9. How tragic

I have to wonder about the brevity of the 'getting to know each other' stage. Ten days sounds really, really fast.

When we take in a new rescue, that orientation period goes on for several weeks, sometimes even months– separate room for the new cat, sniffing and tapping paws under the door with the resident cats, swapping beds and toys around, shutting the herd in a bedroom and letting the new cat explore the house on it's own, putting triple stacked baby gates in the isolation room doorway so everyone can go nose to nose. It's a freakin' process. And this is just with little 10 lb. cats.

[Hortensis]

10. These matings are SO carefully planned. Both had mated well a number of times

before, so neither triggered some "defective--don't allow to reproduce" response. Sometimes there just is no warning when things go bad.

Our son at kindergarten age came dreadfully close to being killed by a neighbor's large, well behaved dog -- slipped past our neighbor at the front door and was running full bore to take down prey when he responded to his owner's command to stop. I was close by but could not have gotten there in time to save our small son. Perhaps jumping around and waving the papers he was bringing home from school triggered it; we didn't know. I still think of it in the middle of the night.

[Karadeniz]

11. Next time, let's retrieve sperm and artificially inseminate.

[harumph]

12. Maybe they should've given him half a xanax.

Just to smooth out the rough edges...

[Raine]

13. How awful

just so sad.