Valentine's in Terra Natura

frolicking about together in the lake

It wouldn't be Valentine's day without a story of heart-string-tugging romance and even better is that it concerns cuddly furry animals. OK we're pushing it describing a ferocious tiger as cuddly, but the rest is true.

Nino the 20 year-old tiger at Terra Natura has had kidney problems, but the care he's received has been so successful that staff there reckon he's up for a bit of romance in his life and maybe even marriage and cubs!
 

Enter Eloisa, a tigress half Nino's age, who has accepted the 200 kilo male's advances and rather seems to like him. They've been spotted frolicking about together in the lake in their compound and keepers are sure that the special vitamins and anti-inflammatories given to Nino for his condition are working their magic.

It would be a great coup for the park if the tigers – they're Asiatic tigers which are an endangered species – could breed.

11 February 2010 Stephen White.

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