Tiger gets the lion’s share of love – Diane Macpherson
(This article appeared in The Sunday Tribune, 6 June 2010)
A young female Siberian tiger called Sasha, whose sister, Zoya, tragically died in early February from the blood disorder, anemia, now shares her space at Seaview Game and Lion Park – outside Port Elizabeth – with two rather unusual adopted sisters: lionesses called Melissa and Erin.
Sasha was six-months-old when Zoya succumbed to anemia during a flea epidemic at the height of the summer drought in the Eastern Cape.
Sasha – offspring of tigers bought by Seaview owners Rusty and Janice Gibb from Jo’burg Zoo – was also in a very weak state herself, and when Zoya died, staff at the Park feared that she would literally lose the will to survive and pine to death. Seaview volunteer, Or Lazmi, from Israel – who’d been at the Park for several months as part of a practical for a game ranger’s course – proposed an unusual move. She’d noticed that one lioness in particular, Melissa, used to call to the tiger sisters from the adjoining enclosure, and so suggested that she be moved in with Sasha. Melissa was nine-months-old at the time and was living with six other lion cubs, five of them male.
Janice Gibb gave the idea the green light and three days after Zoya’s death, Melissa ‘moved house’. Lazmi and Seaview staff member Delano Mulder monitored the girls closely.
Gibb says her initial concern had been for the lioness, despite the fact that she was older than Sasha.
“Even though they were all young I was very concerned for the lion cub as I have seen an angry tiger and I understand how the expression ‘fighting like a tiger’ arose.”
“They took to one another quite quickly though,” says Lazmi. “The minute Melissa went in, she got very excited and started rubbing her head against Sasha’s body – the way that she did with the lions! She began to lick her. Sasha was also interested, but she didn’t really know how to react to all that affection, as tigers are far more aloof animals than lions. There was no aggression whatsoever though,” says Lazmi.
Things went so well with Melissa and Sasha that and about a month later, the Gibbs’ suggested that Melissa’s sister, Erin be brought into the enclosure. The male and female cats are separated once they become adults, so this set-up worked very well and would ensure that Erin wouldn’t be left on her own. By this stage, Sasha had fully regained her strength.
That too, went like clockwork. “A few days afterwards Sasha allowed both of the lion girls to suckle on her ears. It was really sweet because they wouldn’t suckle on each other’s ears – only Sasha’s!” said Lazmi laughing.
“For Sasha to allow them to do that to her, was very special and unique.”
