Animals of The Alaska Zoo: Korol & Kunali

“To provide homes for arctic and sub-arctic wildlife in a natural setting for the recreational enjoyment and educational enrichment of Alaskan residents and visitors to our state.”

That is the mission statement for The Alaska Zoo, and in keeping with that goal a majority of the animals we have at the zoo are local natives. We do, however, have a few “exotics” in residence: two of which I want to talk about today.

Korol & Kunali are our two Amur tigers, more commonly known as Siberian tigers.

That erroneous term came about back in the early 1900s. People back then thought of Siberia as being the most remote destination on the map – similar to Timbuktu in Africa. By calling them Siberian Tigers, they gave them the most exotic name they could think of. Scientists are now working to reinstate “Amur tiger” their official name.

The Amur tiger is one of the most endangered animals on the planet with barely 350 individuals left in the wild. There are about that same number of Amur tigers in captivity, but that still puts the population at under 1,000. Zoos all over the world have gotten together and formed a Species Survival Program (SSP) for them, keeping track of the genetic matches made within the captive pool and mating specific tigers to optimize the dwindling numbers in order to try and save the species.

Korol & Kunali are brothers, born in the same litter five years ago in the Rosemont Gifford Zoo of New York. Their family line is over-represented within the gene pool, so they are considered surplus at the moment. They could, at any time, be put back in the pool however – should that ever be deemed necessary, and as long as they are still young enough to breed successfully.

Their trip up to Alaska was facilitated by Fed-Ex, transporting them in two separate crates built specially for them. Apparently, traveling is not a favored pastime for Amur tigers: when the boys arrived, they were extremely annoyed. They did not enjoy the flight, and were not happy at all about being relocated.

The zoo arranged a welcoming party for them a few days after their arrival. The public was invited to come see them released into their enclosure for the first time, after they had presumably recovered from their flight. We had hundreds of people up on the boardwalk, anxiously awaiting their appearance, with a photographer down on the ground under the boardwalk (but still protected by the fence) to get the best shot.

When they opened the door to the “cave” where the boys have their dens, the tigers were right there at the door. The first tiger took a few tentative steps outside, looking around and sniffing at the air. He then turned to the right of the path to inspect the rocks, leaving the doorway to his brother.

His brother caught sight of the photographer not 20 feet in front of him – and with a blood-curdling roar, he attacked! This was a full-on attack of a top predator that was royally pissed off. 600+ pounds of teeth and claws hit the fence within mere seconds - I have never seen anything like that before or since. It was truly spectacular.

That poor photographer! He got some incredible shots, no doubt; but I’m sure he had to go home and wash his shorts right away. All the people up on the boardwalk were gasping, saying things like “Oh my God!” and “Did you see those claws!”

It took a good month or so for the boys to calm down and get comfortable, but finally they are at home. The enclosure we provide for them is a nice big wooded lot, roughly one third of an acre, with plenty of grasses, trees, rocks, and a cave to hide in. Since the Amur tiger actually loves water, we even provided a swimming pool for them. Unfortunately due to the zoo’s location, the availability of water is not conducive to keeping a tiger’s swimming pool full of clean water on a daily basis – so they don’t get to use it as often as they might wish to.