San Diego zoo's new tiger enclosure brings big cats closer to fans
By Tony Perry
The park has had Sumatran tigers since the late 1970s.
However, to get a glimpse of the tigers, a visitor had to be lucky and hope that the animals were not hiding in the bush when the visitors' tram passed overhead.
Over the Memorial Day weekend all that changed with the opening of new digs for the park's six Sumatrans. The 5.2-acre Tull Family Tiger Trail cost $19.5 million and was 14 months in the making.
Visitors can now get within inches of the tigers — thanks to tempered glass and other safety features.
Children can play tug-a-war with a tiger, with the animal grasping a rope in its teeth and the child, safe behind the glass, grabbing the rope by hand. A children's play area has a log step, rope climbs and a slide, part of a simulated logging camp (rampant logging is destroying the tigers' habitat in their homeland).
The modern visitor to zoos and animal parks demands a close-up view of the animals. Numerous projects — like the new Rainforest of the Americas at the Los Angeles Zoo — are determined to provide that immediacy.
Safari Park keepers hope the new Tiger Trail will lead to greater public support for conservation projects aimed at forestalling the decline of the Sumatran tiger, considered the most endangered of six subspecies of tigers.