Tiger

Description:

Three of the remaining tiger species are critically endangered; the others are endangered. There are only 3200 individuals estimated to be alive in the wild in Asia (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/201...). In 2008, however, it was estimated that there are as many as 5000 tigers in the United States in captivity, including in people's yards (See Paper Tigers; http://www.traffic.org/mammals).

Habitat:

Born in 1999, this tiger is blind. Nitro came to the Carolina Tiger Rescue sanctuary in April 2009 from a junkyard in Kansas, which had to give up its exotic animals after a man was attacked by lions there. The owner there apparently did not know that Nitro was blind; his “mate” Apache looked out for him (Apache also came to CTR and sadly died last year). Nitro has been in different enclosures at the sanctuary and sand paths are always created to let him know where the fences are. His water dish is scented until he knows where it is. He has an extremely sweet nature, chuffling at visitors (a chuffle is a friendly greeting).

Notes:

These photos were taken on different dates; the second and third are from my most recent visit with him, when he left his water tub to come get a meat treat.