Predators

The Amur Leo­pard is the rarest big cat on Earth! It used to be wide­s­p­read: you could find it in eas­tern Sibe­ria bet­ween North Korea and the Rus­sian Tun­dra. Nowa­days, it can only be found along the Amur River. Under 50 ani­mals live there, remai­ning the only free-living Amur leo­pards world­wide! The World Con­ser­va­tion Union, IUCN, has clas­si­fied the Amur leo­pard as criti­cally end­an­ge­red! Today, about 200 of these rare ani­mals live in zoos.

The King Tiger, also known as the Ben­gal tiger, is the most nume­rous tiger sub­s­pe­cies in Asia. This big cat ori­gi­nally came in nine sub­s­pe­cies. Some spe­cies are already extinct and all other tiger breeds are end­an­ge­red. Fort­u­na­tely, it has now been pos­si­ble to build bree­ding groups of Ben­gal tigers and suc­cess­fully mul­ti­ply this mag­ni­fi­cent big cat. Tigers are soli­tary, like all big cats except the lions and chee­tahs, and only come toge­ther during the mating sea­son.

The fas­test land ani­mal! The chee­tah is famous for its enor­mous speed, which can be rea­ched wit­hin a few seconds: 90-110 km/h is an easy task for this beau­ti­ful ani­mal! Howe­ver, the chee­tah can hold this speed only a few meters long and must thus focus on his prey quite accu­ra­tely during his sprint. His poten­tial prey, usually an ante­lope, only has a chance if the dis­tance is big enough. The chee­tah has trai­ned its body for this rapid and short hunt: He has non-retrac­ta­ble claws and is thus equip­ped for high speeds. Also striking is its black streak from the eyes to the snout.

Lions are the second lar­gest cats in the world, next to tigers. Unlike other cats, they are very social ani­mals and live in groups cal­led “Pri­des”. In the past, lions were spread all over Africa, except for rain­fo­rests and the Sahara. Before and during the Ice Ages, they also inha­bi­ted all of Europe and large parts of Asia. Today there is a group in the Gir Natio­nal Park in Guja­rat (India) and still some popu­la­ti­ons south of the Sahara. In the Afri­can natio­nal parks, the lions are under com­p­lete pro­tec­tion. Thus, this spe­cies is con­s­i­de­red vul­ne­ra­ble.

Meer­kats belong to the family of mon­goo­ses, Her­pes­ti­dae. Like all mem­bers of this diur­nal group, they are car­ni­vo­res. Their food con­sists of almost 90% insects, but they can also cap­ture lizards, frogs, birds, scor­pi­ons and eggs. Meer­kats inha­bit the sav­an­nas and semi-deserts of sou­thern Africa, such as the Kala­hari Desert in Bots­wana and the Namib Desert in Nami­bia. They dig under­ground tun­nel sys­tems that can reach up to 3 meters into the ground. Up to 30 indi­vi­duals can live in a “clan”, but some super-fami­lies usually con­ta­ins about 50 or more mem­bers.

White lions first came to pub­lic atten­tion in the 1970s. These royal ani­mals are not albi­nos. Their white color is cau­sed by a reces­sive gene. They reside in the South Afri­can Kru­ger Natio­nal Park and in Tim­ba­vati. Tmba­vati is a pri­vate game reserve with no fence boun­da­ries on the wes­tern bor­der of the Kru­ger Natio­nal Park. In 2008, the Glo­bal White Lion Pro­tec­tion Trust (GWLPT) suc­cess­fully rein­tro­du­ced a pack of white lions in Tim­ba­vati to pre­serve the white gene in the wild. Alt­hough not yet asses­sed by the World Con­ser­va­tion Union, IUCN, this spe­cies is con­s­i­de­red vul­ne­ra­ble accor­ding to the GWLPT.

The white tiger is a pig­men­ta­tion vari­ant of the Ben­gal tiger cau­sed by a lack of the red and yel­low pig­ments, pheo­me­lanin, that nor­mally pro­duce the orange color. They are not albi­nos because they have blue ins­tead of red eyes, and their fur is pig­men­ted in the form of black stri­pes. Both par­ents must carry the unu­sual reces­sive gene for white colo­ring, which only hap­pens natu­rally in about 1 in 10,000 births! Our white tigers live in a very large, green environ­ment. We are very gra­te­ful that we can give these rare ani­mals a home here in Seren­geti Park. There are only about 300 white tigers around the world! Expe­ri­ence one of the most beau­ti­ful spe­cies in the world and the pride of Seren­geti Park!