As we were passing through the Elephant pen, we noticed a
sign that said “Tiger Show at 2:15” – it was currently around 1:30 but Nicola
and I looked at each other and thought “how can we NOT go to a tiger show?” It
sounded awesome even though we knew nothing of what the show would entail,
other than tigers of course. We walked into a smaller, concrete arena than the
Crocoseum and took our seats at the back. The pen had a large water pool at the
centre and, annoyingly, loads of children piled up against the glass despite
the zoo handlers telling them to go back – the kids parents were there but just
didn’t listen…bad parenting…or maybe the parents were just cretins.
Anyway, after an excruciating wait, due in part to the
building excitement and in some part due to having to squeeze next to other
sweaty people in our row, the tiger show began. A few handlers came out along
with two beautiful Sumatran Tigers (whose names I cannot recall). The handlers
basically ran through the training programme that they had developed with the
tigers. The training seemed pretty simple when they ran through it but it was
really effective…the one thing they didn’t explain though, was how they would
train a BIG, wild tiger – the two that were brought out were born at Australia
Zoo.
A few highlights of the tiger show included:
- A handler holding a piece of meat on the end of a 10 foot pole encouraging the tiger to jump off a log and snatch the meat (which was hanging 12 foot or so in the air).
- A tiger climbing a tree
- A tiger standing on its back legs, leaning on the trainer with his two front paws
The trainers explained that the tigers didn’t have to do the
tricks/training regime, but if they did they received rewards…positive
reinforcement. In fairness, the tigers seemed to LOVE milk and after each trick
received drops of milk from a little tub (just standard shop bought milk, cow’s
milk, nothing special). There was only one show a day, which lasts 20 minutes,
so it’s not like the tigers were hard pressed. So I guess a lesson, if you are
in tiger territory, or planning on heading into tiger territory…take milk.
Tigers go crazy for milk.
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