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STAR-ADVERTISER / 2009
Two of the Honolulu Zoo’s three Sumatran tiger cubs play. All of them are bound for new homes.
The second of three tiger cubs born at the Honolulu Zoo in 2009 is scheduled to leave Honolulu to be bred with a female Sumatran tiger in Tacoma, Washington.
Malosi, a male Sumatran tiger from Honolulu is scheduled to arrive at the Point Defiance Zoo on Wednesday to breed with the Tacoma zoo’s female.
Point Defiance Zoo general curator Karen Goodrowe Beck said the zoos hope to boost the population of the critically endangered animals.
The Tacoma zoo’s Jaya gave birth to two cubs in 2010. One of the cubs died last July after an intestinal problem.
Another male tiger named Keahi went to the Yagiyama Zoo in Sendai, Japan last year and the third male cub, Tondi, will go to another zoo that has yet to be confirmed, Zoo Director Manuel Mollinedo said.
The cub’s parents, Chrissie and Berani, are also part of a breeding program to help improve the tiger population. They will breed again to hopefully produce another litter after Tondi leaves, Molinedo said.
Sumatran tigers are designated as a "critically endangered species," with as few as 400 of the tigers left in their native Sumatra.
