Rossiyskaya Gazeta –Nedelya: “Cake in the cage”
Vladimir Putin's tiger will ring in the New Year at the Gelendzhik safari-park
Our correspondents visited the striped animal – the symbol of the coming year.
They learned that the female Siberian tiger, Masha, which was given to the Prime Minister as a gift a year ago, would receive a 10-kilogram meat cake for New Year's Day. Also, there will be a Christmas tree in her enclosure, decorated with chunks of her favourite meal.
A room with a sea view
Vladimir Putin was presented with this unusual gift, a two-month-old Siberian tiger cub, for his birthday in October 2008. Interestingly, after being introduced to the young beast, journalists proposed to make him the symbol of the ASEAN-2012 summit in the Primorye Territory, and Putin did not seem to object.
The prime minister admitted it was sad to give up the tiger, but the beast needed to live in appropriate conditions. Therefore, after spending several days in his official residence in Novo-Ogaryovo, the cub was sent to her new permanent home at the safari-park in Gelendzhik, located at the southern slope of the Markotkh mountain range. The safari-park covers an area of approximately two hectares and is home to lions, pumas, tigers, and bears.
The one-and-a-half-year-old, well-nourished tiger hardly resembles the 30-kilogram striped kitten it was last year, when it played here under the December sun. Playing is still the favourite pass time of this two-meter long beast, known as the master of the taiga. The only difference is that soft toys and coloured balls have been replaced by a big hoop and a pool, where Masha enjoys swimming every day.
A lady with character
At this age, tigers are still considered very young. The wild cat was initially held in a separate room that was decorated to resemble the Siberian taiga and had heated floors. Masha enjoyed looking in her big mirror and made it a habit to wash herself in front of it. She also liked watching the sea out of the window with a great view on the Blue Bay. When the tiger grew up and no longer fit in the room, they moved it to an enclosure of its own.
But the striped beast does not seem to mind the new "residence" and continues to grow rapidly. And it's not surprising. The fairly large enclosure with a pool in the middle (the safari-park workers jokingly call it a dowry, but refuse to name the benefactor) makes the tiger quite happy. Masha is already as big as the fully mature female tiger, Lada, and enjoys "chatting" with her neighbors from the adjacent enclosures – leopards and pumas.
Currently, Masha eats more than eight kilograms of meat per day plus two to three cans of sour cream. They also mix some vitamins with her food. Generally, tigers do not limit their consumption, as life in the wild does not allow them to become obese. But in captivity, it can be a problem.
As we approach the enclosure with the safari-park Director, Boris Papiashvili, and his deputy, Tatyana Zavalnaya, the "lady in stripes" starts purring as if greeting the guests. Masha is a very friendly cat, but occasionally she can be difficult to deal with.
"She is very wary of men," Tatyana says. "If a man wants to hand feed her, Masha may refuse the food. Yet, for some reason, she does like blond- and grey-haired men. In a sense, they are her ultimate desire. In their presence, Masha immediately starts flirting, stretching, and rolling on her back. At the same time, she is very fond of women and enjoys playing and being patted very much. Masha has just shed her milk teeth. Her fangs are very big, indicating that she will grow into a fairly large animal, possibly as big as our male tigers. Yet, it is still too early to move her in with grown-up tigers. Let her grow up a bit more and get stronger so that she can fight back."
Having noticed her "mother" Tanya, Masha runs to her along the fence trying to avoid Boris Papiashvili, who also entered the enclosure.
There are no signs attached to the enclosure indicating that this is "Putin's tiger." However, informed tourists always want to see the famous "resident" when visiting the safari-park.
Generally, big cats, with the exception of lions, tolerate both cold and hot weather. When it is raining, Masha takes a seat on the pool stairs and enjoys it. In approximately a year, she will be able to find herself a "boyfriend," and there are quite a few of them in the park.
In fact, tigers are matriarchal animals. Currently, the slim and petite Lada, the only female tiger at the park, easily handles five formidable males. Still, two of her cubs are held separately from the grown-up tigers to avoid being killed. As it befits cats, the tigers are active in the evening and at night, but during the day, they are lazy and mostly sleep. Each of them has a character of its own.
"We just need to look at them once to understand if they are in a good mood and if it is okay to go inside the enclosure," says animal technician Maria Fisun. "We can tell by the way they are jerking their tails and moving their ears."
Sight recovery
Overall, there are nine tigers in the safari-park: six grown-ups, the "teenager" Masha, and two eight-month-old cubs, Cleopatra and Cassandra. Boris Papiashvili jokes that there are enough symbols for almost every month of the coming Year of the Tiger. The safari-park is the first animal rehab center on the Black Sea coast. Each animal has its own difficult life story. They either arrive here after retiring from the circus or are sent to the park by street photographers, who use the animals during the vacation season.
Several tigers, for example, ended up in the park after going blind due to exposure to camera flashes. Looking at these majestic, well-attended animals, one can hardly imagine the hungry, exhausted, and sick kittens they were when admitted to the safari-park.
The beaten and unattended female tiger, Lada, was four month old, according to her previous owner, when she was admitted to the safari-park. But the animal hardly looked two months old. While getting off the drugs it had been given, the withdrawal pain was so severe that the animal was even biting itself.
Male tigers Homer and Ramses arrived at the park with cataracts on both eyes due to constant exposure to camera flashes. The cataracts were removed at the park's clinic. The gorgeous Lada has delivered cubs three times already and is currently raising two cubs, fathered by Homer. Lions, leopards, pumas, and bears with similar stories arrive at the safari-park from all over the Black Sea coast.
"The problem does exist, and I hope that Masha will to a certain extent help resolve it by drawing attention to the issue and to the fact that there are very few tigers and leopards left," Boris Papiashvili says. "They do not suffer from poachers so much as they do from the fact that roes and boars, which tigers mainly feed on, have been almost entirely exterminated in their habitat."
Yekaterina Kovalevskaya
