Eight years ago, Tiger Temple was raided and shut down with 147 tigers relocated to two government facilities run by the Department of National Parks (DNP). Due to the sheer number of tigers taken, these facilities struggled with caring for this overload of tigers.
Not only did the tigers suffer in terms of a changed diet, location, tiger neighbours and keepers, but they were also severely restricted concerning their living space sizes. This caused a lot of stress, resulting in an increase of health conditions causing many tigers to pass away prematurely. In fact, just three years after the confiscation, 86 tigers were already gone.
However, at For Tigers, we persevered, working alongside the DNP to improve the welfare of these tigers. Over these eight years, we have fundraised and built 9 enclosures at the DNP. In addition, we have funded the building of ponds, and platforms, providing grass seed, mature trees, chicken (during Covid-19), carnivore supplements and medication. All of this has helped improve the tiger welfare and their quality of life.
Why was our primary focus to build enclosures?
Due to the sheer number of tigers taken all at once, cages had to be built quickly to accommodate the confiscation. This meant that each tiger was living in an 8x12 m area without any access to a pond, trees or range of substrate.
Neither was this area appropriate for the tigers to perform a wide repertoire of behaviours, limiting the ability to run, explore, jump and relax. While each tiger was given a small bathtub, this barely accommodated the length of a tiger and does not allow any movement or swimming. No enrichment program was in place to alleviate any of the boredom or stress caused by the small cages and lack of complexity.
At Tiger Temple, these tigers were used to having access to large enclosures, ranging in size from 200sqm to 1000sqm. Within each enclosure was different topography, trees, shrubs, substrates, large ponds, plaforms, caves and dens. As such, they were accustomed to accessing a large amount of space and able to perform a wide repertoire of positive natural behaviours. By funding and building enclosures at the DNP, we sought to provide the tigers access to areas like this once more.
Of course, these new enclosures still did not match those of Tiger Temple but it meant that the living space size was increased to 10x20 m or 200 sqm.
Additionally, with these enclosures, tigers have access to trees providing shade and scratching posts. Larger ponds were built, platforms provided, and access to grass and other vegetation. Importantly, the tigers were now able to move and could begin exploring and playing, displaying more natural behaviours, relaxing and de-stressing in comparison to their smaller living conditions.
Recent losses
We had always aimed to keep building enclosures until all Tiger Temple tigers had access to one. Last year, this bittersweet moment arrived with the completion of three more enclosures. However, this goal was reached sooner than we thought simply because so many of the tigers passed away.
In the last year, some of the oldest remaining tigers have since passed. Hanfa, Big Mek, Dao Lurk Jr, and Hurricane, all passed away since our last visit in 2023. At least we have one consolation in that all of them had access to an enclosure before their passing. Now, the remaining 26 tigers share these enclosures, accessing them daily. But we are still not finished here.
What are we doing now to improve tiger welfare?
With enclosures built for all of the tigers from Tiger Temple, we are now starting the process of improving them. While these enclosures are better than the areas the tigers had originally, they still do not provide all the needs of each individual. For instance, not all enclosures have platforms or dens in which to observe the world from or hide when required. Additionally, there is still no proper enrichment program in place.
Some of the tigers are getting on in years at around 12 to 14 years old. But some are still fairly young, with a number of the tigers between 8 and 10 years old. At this time, all the tigers are still very active, and we’d like to keep it this way. This is where enrichment comes in.
Providing an enrichment program can help to stimulate the tigers physically and mentally. You can find out more about the importance of enrichment here.
We’re now fundraising to provide more enrichment items such as boomer or zoo balls, to keep the tigers interested in their environment, playing and interacting. We also plan to begin an enrichment workshop to help in the implementation of an ongoing enrichment program to ensure the remaining tigers are stimulated both mentally and physically, thus improving their quality of life.
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