Shropshire Star

Watch as three tiger cubs at Whipsnade Zoo celebrate their first birthday

The endangered cubs celebrated with multi-coloured party pinatas.

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A tiger at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo celebrates its first birthday

Three endangered Amur tiger cubs at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo celebrated their first birthday on Wednesday with a set of multi-coloured party pinatas.

One-year-old cubs Dmitri, Makari and Czar were born on June 23 2018 to mum Naya and dad Botzman. They were given pinatas stuffed with meaty treats to celebrate turning one.

The zoo will celebrate the tigers’ birthdays for the entire week, ending the celebrations on Saturday with gift boxes full of food.

Team leader Donovan Glyn said: “To have three endangered Amur tiger cubs growing into strong and healthy males is something to really celebrate, especially when you consider there are only 500 left in the wild.

“A pinata is the perfect party game for a tiger cub, because they love to explore new things and practise their pouncing skills! They wasted no time in tearing off the paper to get to the good stuff!”

The birth of the cubs in 2018 was a success for the European Endangered Species Breeding Programme, with conservation efforts resulting in an estimated 500 Amur tigers being left in the wild – 10 times the number that were estimated to exist in the 1940s.

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