It was autumn 2019 when ten tigers were intercepted in a horse transport truck near the border between Poland and Belarus. The animals were in far too small transport cages, one tiger did not survive the transport.
After a few weeks of emergency shelter in Poznan zoo, Poland, five tigers were able to continue their recovery in our Spanish shelter. Aqua, Sanson, Merida, Softi and Toph were brought to AAP Primadomus in Spain.
Because we didn’t know if the tigers had shared an enclosure with each other before or got along well, they each got their own enclosure. By paying close attention to their behavior towards each other in their adjacent outdoor enclosures, we could quickly assess whether certain animals had a click with each other. And we found that this was the case with Softi and Toph.
We therefore decided to investigate further whether the animals could share an enclosure with each other. Softi and Toph were temporarily placed in an area where they could get closer to each other and see, hear and smell each other. When that went well too, the two were placed together and from day one that went very smoothly. In this video you can see how an introduction between two tigers is established.
