Enclosure design
- Modern enclosures emphasize a natural habitat: soil, vegetation, water features (Müller 2001)
- Social groupings require adequate enclosure size and design (Müller 2001)
- Allow male and female to keep out of each other's way
- Success depends on behavior of the individuals
- Male should never be left in enclosure with female during or just after birth or with young cubs
Environmental enrichment
- Stereotypic pacing often seen; reduced by enrichment opportunities (Szokalski 2012)
- Enrichment devices and techniques (Szokalski 2012)
- Novel food items
- Altered feeding routines and food displays
- Novel toys/objects
- Olfactory stimulation - novel scents
- Increases in enclosure size, enclosure rotations
- Social enrichment - tiger groups, human-tiger interactions
- Visual barriers
- Blocking view of tigers in neighboring exhibits can significantly reduce pacing
Subspecies identification
- Knowledge of wild origins often lost after generations of breeding under managed care (Müller 2001)
- DNA testing enables identification of subspecies and hybrids (Müller 2001)
- Subspecies under care, as of 2000 (from Müller 2001)
- Amur (Siberian) tigers: 600 individuals
- Sumatran tigers: 300 individuals
- Bengal tigers: 300 individuals
- South China tigers: 60 individuals
- Indochinese tigers: 50
Major breeding centers, as of 2000 (Müller 2001)
- Amur Tiger
- Zoologischer Garten (Leipzig, Germany)
- Rotterdam Zoo (the Netherlands)
- Berlin Zoo (Germany)
- Cheyenne Mountain Zoological Park (Colorado Springs, Colorado)
- Bengal Tiger
- Nandankanan Zoological Park (Bhubaneswar, India)
- National Zoological Park (New Delhi, India)
- Zoological Garden (Calcutta, India)
- South China Tiger
- Shanghai Zoological Gardens (China)
- Canton Zoo (China)
- Suchou Zoo (China)
- Indochinese Tiger
- Zoo Melaka (Ayer Keroh, Malaysia)
- Singapore Zoo (Republic of Singapore)
- Taiping Zoo (Bukit Larut, Malayasia)
Breeding methods
- Tigers reproduce well by natural means in zoos and breeding facilities (Brown 2011)
- Assisted reproductive techniques have had limited success (Brown 2011) but are expected to play larger role in future to achieve species survival goals (Tilson et al. 1994)
- Embryo transfer
- In vitro fertilization
- Artificial insemination
- Gamete and embryo cryopreservation (frozen sperm, eggs or embryos)
- Firsts in assisted reproduction
- 1990: first live tiger births by in-vitro fertilization/embryo transfer, Omaha Zoo in collaboration with National Zoo and Minnesota Zoo (Tilson et al. 1994)
- 1991: first live tiger birth from artificial insemination, Omaha Zoo (Tilson et al. 1994)
The issue of generic tigers
- Term "generic" used for subspecies hybrids and/or tigers of unknown pedigree (Goff et al. 2012)
- Hybrids from lion/tiger matings have occurred under managed care (Müller 2001)
- Liger - offspring of male lion x female tiger
- Tigon or tiglon - offspring of male tiger x female lion
- Do not occur in wild due to widely separated ranges; not deliberately bred in modern zoos
- White tigers in AZA institutions are managed under Generic Tiger SSP (Goff et al. 2012)
- Under breeding moratorium to increase institutional capacity to breed/manage tigers of known pedigree and subspecies (Goff et al. 2012)
