A set of four rare tiger cubs who are some of the most endangered animals in the world have received their first vaccinations in Wiltshire.
The Amur tiger cubs were born at Longleat Safari Park in Warminster in May 2024 and keepers have been looking forward to letting the quadruplets explore the park.
In order to keep this endangered species safe, the cubs have had to go through a series of vaccinations first.
Currently, the Amur tiger is one of the most endangered animals in the world with only 450 left in the wild across the globe.
Lead Carnivore keepers Caleb Hall and Eloise Kilbane coordinated the jabs with the veterinary team and despite the cubs being only a few weeks old, they both needed to wear gauntlets and gloves to protect themselves.
“Similar to our domestic cats at home, our tigers need vaccinating, and they had a thorough health check,” said Caleb.
“They already love running around and exploring,” added Eloise.
“Mum Yana was really relaxed throughout the vaccination experience. Although we had physically separated her, she could still see them, and she was quite chilled – probably because she has had experience of this before."
The cubs will have a second vaccination in another three weeks, and keepers say they are expected to then be released into the park for the public to see at the end of the school summer holidays.
The cubs won’t immediately go in the drive-through Safari as the keepers will need to ensure they are familiar with the outdoors so they will be in a smaller paddock initially.
The parents of these four cubs - mum Yana and dad Red - have previously had two cubs in 2019 named Yuki and Rusty, however Rusty moved to Blackpool Zoo last year as part of the breeding programme.
Native to the far east of Russia, the Amur tiger is the largest of the big cats and can weigh up to 300kg and measure more than three metres in length.
Longleat now has the biggest collection of Amur tigers in the UK, and the Longleat cubs equate to more than 25 per cent of births across Europe in the previous two years.
In the 1930s the tigers had nearly died out due to hunting, and at one stage it is thought the population fell as low as just 20–30 animals.
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