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Published: February 8th 2011
9am the alarm goes off, 10am the alarm goes off, 11am we finally managed to drag ourselves out of bed after a bad night’s sleep, due to a loud buzzing noise in our room. We sorted a few tours out at reception – Elephant Mahout and the Long Neck Tribe Trek and discovered we could get a tuk tuk to Tiger Kingdom for 300B and then headed off to find some morning sustenance. I wasn’t feeling on top form with my stomach, nothing terrible but I just didn’t feel right, or particularly hungry. I settled for a pancake with chocolate and banana from a street vendor. He had clearly mastered the art of pancake making, and was drawing sauce bottles like weapons from behind his little stand and swirling it onto the pancakes with one hand, while simultaneously mixing up some fresh batter with the other. Pancakes and strawberry ice smoothies in hand, we hopped into a 250B tuk tuk (to the tiger kingdom and back) and pootled off at an agreeable speed down the busy Chaing Mai streets. 20Km, it took a while, but with the sun shining and the wind rushing through the tuk tuk, it was a pleasant
journey; much more relaxing than Bangkok tuk tuks.
We already knew Tiger Kingdom meant handing out more than we would like to of our precious Baht, but where in the world can you cuddle up to a 15month old tiger! No chains, no drugs, just you and man eating big cat. ‘Biggest and Smallest Tiger’ 820B package, it had to be – the cutest and the scariest! We had a quick nosey at the Big Cat enclosures from above, where people were cautiously posing for photos and sitting timidly beside them. “An accident waiting to happen” the words from an online review I had read kept reeling through my head. Yes I agreed, it did look rather like an accident waiting to happen, Sigfried and roy style. But I’m not turning down any once in a lifetime experiences on these travels and so we paid.
"An accident waiting to happen"
I was relieved to bet led to the lion cub enclosure first and we didn’t have to wait long to get our turn. The building was split into two sections, one for the 2 month olds and the other, the 4 month
olds. After washing our hands we immediately sat beside THE cutest animals I have seen in my life! These 2 month cubs were adorable, chasing about and play fighting. The keeper, who was a Western volunteer, invited me to sit down by Euro, his favourite cub. How could he have favourites! There were 3 of them and they were all equally as adorable. They were such funny looking things, completely out of proportion, with huge feet and dumbo-like ears. Euros coat was far finer than that of the Chase the lion cub I had handled in New Zealand and the individual strands lay flat to his body. The lion cub was more wooly I guess, more padded and fluffy. I gave him a cuddle and rubbed his belly, but he was more interested in watching his companions play fighting. One nipped at Stes ankle as he was photographing me. Ste took a spot on the floor and Euro immediately took up residence on his knee, like any normal domestic cat. I didn’t want to leave but the keeper coaxed us away by offering us a stroke of the four months old cats.
Lulu was flat
out on a table sleeping, it’s their favourite pastime, tigers sleep up to 13 hours a day! I know there is a lot of controversy about tiger attractions such as Tiger Kingdom and the Tiger monastery drugging their cats, but these certainly weren’t, the cubs had tonnes of energy and were dashing about the place and the larger ones were very alert once woken. The keeper prodded Lala and she began to play with his stick reaching out to grab it with her claws. We were allowed to lie down next to Lulu on the table for some photos and she wasn’t in the slightest bit bothered as he pulled up her whiskers to reveal her sharp canines. A couple that came in after us were feeding one of the cubs with a bottle – so cute!
Next up, the BIG cats, but the queue was long so we took a stroll to see a HUGE tiger we could see in a cage down the opposite end of the park. Admittedly this tiger was far too colossal in size to be stuffed in such a small cage, but he looked remarkable well cared for –
better than most zooz I have seen in England. He was just chilling out on his perch right next to the wire, but he perked up as we got closer. I need to emphasise that he – was – HUGE! And you could reach out and touch him if you really wanted too! His eyes were piercing and he was honestly so intimidating, that it was hard to look him in the eye. His paws were bigger than my head and his skull was the size of a cows! I got closer to photograph his eye when – BAM! He lunged for me with his paw! I leapt about 6 feet backwards. There were some raised eyebrows from onlookers, who were probably considering ripping up their big cat tickets that very second. “erm…I’m not too sure about the big cats anymore” I said to Ste, my heart like a hummingbirds.
We took our place in the queue and tried to forget what we had just seen. “Does that huge one around the corner come out to play” I asked a keeper. He laughed, “He is fully grown and no one can touch him anymore” -
“but he has to stay in that small cage all the time?” I asked. The keeper tried to convince me that he didn’t need much space because tigers mostly sleep, but I’m sure a little more couldn’t have hurt, like in New Zealand. He was in incredible health and condition though, which at the end of the day, is the highest priority for all captive animals. If his hair had been dropping out and he looked malnourished, like animals I have seen in Japanese and Hungarian zoos, then I think I would have found his situation upsetting. Most of the adult tigers from Tiger Kingdom are sold to other zoos, but the park was founded primarily for the preservation of the endangered Indo-Chinese species of tiger and also to earn money from tourists, for the upkeep of the tigers in its affiliated zoos.
The keeper slid open cage door and I hoped that the tiger staring directly at me only a few feet away wasn’t feeling in the mood to make a break for it today. “Don’t worry I protect you” said the vertically challenged bloke as he flashed us a foot long stick of
bamboo, expecting us to trust that he could fend off the 10 foot long beast; oh and it’s two tiger mates that were relaxing around the corner! He guided us away from the jaws of death and to safer tail end of the immense creature. He gave its rump a couple of heavy handed pats to make the tiger aware of our presence, as gently tickling and brushing the tiger like a fly could only cause it to spontaneously try and bat you off! The keeper then grabbed me “You like tiger?” and without waiting for a reply he draped me over its back so that I was literally lying on the fully grown man eating cat! It was an amazing experience to lie alongside such a beautiful animal, but I was always ready for fight or flight, just in case it whipped round its giant jaws. I didn’t want to be that ‘accident waiting to happen!’ After my turn, Ste tentatively sat down next to him and gave him a stroke, he didn’t look 100% comfortable but who in their right mind would be?!
One of the other tigers had perked us and was
Scary Moment
please dont bite my head off...now thrashing around in the pool and chasing after a coconut shell attached to a stick that the keeper was waving in front of it. It was playing like any other domestic cat, but this was a tiger! A full sized tiger, with all the energy and spirit of the tiny cubs we had seen earlier. Our guide dragged us closer, and closer! We could now practically feel the playful tigers breath against our faces. It was bounding around, claws out and leaping in the air after the coconut. I really couldn’t believe I was so close!! I usually feel slightly on edge looking at tigers through bars and here I was standing face to face with one. I took a couple of steps back as it approached us “No worry, no worry” said the keeper and brought us closer still to watch the tiger jump from some rocks and into the pool. We then had a peek at the other two tigers that were now cuddled up together and grooming one another, but I was always checking my back for the forgotten tiger that was now wading about the pool behind everyone; tiger always attack from behind! Out of
the gate, limbs intact, with both let out a breath of relief.
Even though this park constantly promotes the fact that ‘Tigers don’t need drugs’ I still reckon there are many disbelievers out there, but honestly, the amount of energy these creatures had when they weren’t sunbathing or sleeping was incredible and they were much happier and more well cared for than a lot of zoos I have been to. I don’t know what the people that give it the bad reviews on trip advisor are expecting. If you really can’t stand to see captive animals, then don’t bother even considering it These tigers have been born, bred and hand raised in captivity and so they can never be released into the wild. They will never be free and allowed to act naturally but they are still enjoying a good quality of life at the Tiger Kingdom.
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