Tigers About The House Episode 2

Yesterday we watched the first episode of BBC2 documentary Tigers About The House. You can read our thoughts on that here.

Episode 2 has just aired, and our thoughts are very much the same. In this episode, the cubs were slightly older, meaning that they were doing a lot of damage to the house they are living in, such as chewing up sofas. Despite the fact that this can't be good for them, and the obvious choking/digestion risks it provides, the family seemed unbothered about stopping such behaviours, which only served further to highlight how inappropriate it is to raise wild animals in a house.

On the other side of the spectrum, fair play to the BBC for showing the real extent of poaching, the real nitty gritty, rather than pussy-footing round the issue. Part of the programme was filmed in Indonesia, and showed the skins and body parts of tiger which had been poached - including a foot which was hanging onto the rest of the skin by a thread thanks to the damage done by a snare.

Whilst we embrace any television programme, or zoo, which helps to raise awareness of the plight of critically endangered animals such as the Sumatran tiger, we still have strong reservations that hand-rearing cubs is the way to go about raising awareness, or even that it makes any contribution to the long term welfare and conservation of these animals.

We'll be tuning in to the final installment tomorrow to see if our views change.

EDIT: Since the second episode aired earlier this evening, it has been revealed that during filming, one of the tiger keepers at Australia Zoo, where the programme takes place, was left in intensive care after being mauled by one of the adult tigers. This does nothing to impove the programme's reputation, which was already taking a beating from the public on social media, and only serves to fuel the argument that tigers should not be socialised.

Tigers About The House Episode 1

This week, BBC2 shows a three part documentary, Tigers About The House, which looks at a pair of Sumatran tiger cubs being hand reared at home by a zoo keeper in Australia.

Anything that brings publicity for this endangered species is good, but finding out about the programme, we were expecting a little controversy to be stirred up. None of the previews mentioned a reason for them being hand reared, meaning that we were expecting resistance, at the very least, from viewers of the Born Free mentality, and perhaps even more widespread if they had been taken from their mother and domesticated without a legitimate reason such as rejection at birth.

It was interesting to see Australia Zoo's approach to conservation awareness, allowing visitors to get up close and touch animals such as camels and wallabies in the hope that it would encourage the public to support conservation efforts. However, the issue of domesticating these wild animals to the point that the public can interact with them is something that has been phased out in the majority of zoos in recent years, and is not something that we necessarily agree with. The programme even showed the tigers performing in a tiger show, despite many people believing that captive animals should not be made to perform, no matter how endangered or in need of publicity their species is.

It was revealed in the first episode that the reason for the cubs being removed from their mother, was not to do with rejection, or danger, but mainly influenced by the zoo's desire to continue their practice of directly handling these animals into the next generation - they wanted to domesticate the cubs from birth so that their keepers could continue to enter their enclosures, rather than keeping their distance as is standard practice in most zoos,

That's not to say that Giles doesn't have the best intentions, and doesn't do an excellent job at raising the cubs - he does. But that doesn't mean that everyone agrees with their decision to handle the animals and remove two healthy cubs from their mother to satisfy human desires.

Let's see what the next episode brings tomorrow.

Conservation news round-up: 26 May-1 June 2014

The big news in wildlife and conservation this week:

Study finds that the killing of elephants in past generations has affected the social structure of current generations.

Study finds that elephant calves suck their trunks the same way that human babies suck their thumbs.

There are plans to open a coal mine just 40 metres from Hluhluwe-iMfolozi park in South Africa, which is considered the most important rhino sanctuary in the world.

In Kent, there has been an increase in wild birds such as chaffinches being caught in glue traps and sold for profit.

The first ever "elephant selfie" has been taken at West Midlands Safari Park, after a visitor dropped his phone into the enclosure.

US members of congress support orca protection.

Trainer mauled by a tiger returns to work at Steve Irwin's zoo.

Surprise sloth baby at London Zoo.

Twycross Zoo celebrates 50th anniversary.

Study of orangutan's teeth at Chester Zoo aims to help their wild counterparts.

Penguins at Canberra Zoo killed by fox.

Seaworld accused of distorting orca research.

Wildlife art exhibitions coming to London. Two have been and gone, but two are yet to come.

Great images of Masai Mara wildlife at sunrise and sunset.

Bison released back into the wild in Romania

Toxic toads threatening Madagascar's wildlife.

Fewer polar bears are being born in the wild than before, due to climate change, putting the species into even greater danger of extinction.

Florida woman keeps Bengal tigers as pets.

Images of tigers caught on camera traps.


What have we missed? Let us know in the comments below, or on Facebook or Twitter.