SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Sumatran Tiger
Zoo Director Lucy Spelman
and Wayne Milner, great cat
keeper, with Berani
(Photo - National Zoo)
Broadcast: January 15, 2002
The Smithsonian National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C. recently showed a new baby Sumatran tiger to
the public for the first time. Thousands of people are waiting in long lines to see the rare animal. He was born at
the zoo September Eighteenth. Only about one-hundred-seventy Sumatran tigers live in zoos.The baby tiger is
called Berani.
The name means “brave”
in the Bahasa Indonesian language. Sumatran tigers
come from the island of Sumatra in northern Indonesia. Like all tigers in the world,
they are threatened with dying out. Fewer than five-hundred of these animals now
survive in the wild in Sumatra.
Zoo scientists examined Berani for the first time two weeks after his birth. At that
time, he weighed less than three kilograms. He now weighs more than ten
kilograms. Zoo director Lucy Spelman says information gained from studying
Berani will help zoo experts protect other Sumatran tigers.
VOICE ONE:
The birth of Berani resulted from a scientifically managed reproduction plan for Sumatran tigers. The National
Zoo cooperates with the American Zoo Association in this effort. Other agencies involved are the Save the Tiger
Fund and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.
Berani’s mother is Soyono. His father is Rokan. The birth marked the second time in recent years that the
National Zoo has welcomed Sumatran tigers. Rokan became the father of three Sumatran baby tigers in Nineteen-
Ninety-Nine.
For many years, experts believed Sumatran tigers belonged to a larger scientific grouping of tigers. However, a
Nineteen-Ninety-Eight study of tiger cells questioned this belief. Researchers from several areas of science made
the study. The magazine “Animal Conservation”
published their results.
The study reported that Sumatran tigers are unlike other tigers. Blood taken from Sumatrans showed three genetic
markers not found in other kinds of tigers. Zoos throughout the world since then have increased their efforts to
produce more Sumatran tigers.
VOICE TWO:
Sumatrans are the smallest surviving tigers in the world. If Berani is average, he will measure about two meters
when fully grown. He will weigh about one-hundred-twenty kilograms. The Sumatran has the darkest skin of any
tiger. It has many black marks on its dark orange body.
Two other kinds of tigers once lived in Indonesia. However, these Javan and Balinese tigers have disappeared
from Earth. In Nineteen-Ninety-Four, Indonesia developed a reproduction program aimed at saving Sumatran
tigers in the wild.
Humans threaten the existence of these animals, as they threaten all tigers. Increases in human population and
agriculture have robbed the tigers of places where they once lived.
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