Eye of the tiger

Here at Blackpool zoo were constantly looking for new ways to improve the husbandry and welfare of our animals – whether that's through nutrition, providing stimulating environments or different types of enrichment.

Naturally in the wild tigers would build up muscle on their front legs and top of the shoulders by hunting prey. In this situation they don’t have prey that they take down every day, so it’s up to keepers here at Blackpool Zoo to try and compensate that and help them build up those muscles.

One way they can do that, is by making our tigers work for their food - in this case, by placing it up a tree, encouraging our cats to climb and really work their muscles. 

Adam Kenyon, Section Head of Mammals, said: "This is the first time we have used this kind of technology so close to the animals and the results are stunning. We’ve actually managed to get some amazing footage of Zambar and Alyona climbing the tree, but more importantly we’ve got some fantastic footage of the two little guys climbing the tree just like their mum and dad. Because they are young they like to explore and just like any other young animals or even our own children, at that age they are extremely inquisitive. So we’ve been lucky enough to see them climb the tree themselves, they’ve even been getting really close to the camera!"