My recent post about the Tiger and Piglets was only half true. Unfortunately the fake story is a little more heartwarming, but I feel it is my duty to let eveyone know the real story, which one of our readers so generously brought to our attention. So I would like to give my apologies to anyone who has been decieved by this story. Apparently, Tigers and pigs can get along, but this instance was simply for entertainment:
http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/tigerpig.asp
As often happens, this appears to be a case where someone came across some unusual photos with no explanatory context, so the viewer decided to make up his own background story. The pictures are real, but the accompanying explanation about a mother tiger in California being given piglets to ease her through a depression stemming from the loss of her own cubs is fiction.
The images displayed above were taken in 2004 at the Sriracha Tiger Zoo in Chonburi, Thailand. Although the Sriracha Tiger Zoo hosts one of the world’s most successful tiger breeding programs, unlike most western zoos it also offers circus- and carnival-like shows, exhibits, and interactions, including (as evidenced here) the mixture of adults and young of quite different species in the same enclosures. As described by the
In one glass room, a farrowing crate entombed a pig who, lying on her side, nourished both her piglets and tiger cubs. Across the hall, another glass room housed a female tiger, who fed piglets adorned in tiger-print costumes. This incongruous display was replicated elsewhere, where enclosures housed tigers, pigs, and dogs together.
In another area, a visitor could feed milk to a young tiger resting on his or her
The mixture of tiger and piglets depicted in the images above therefore was not something undertaken for functional reasons, but rather it’s a common form of visual entertainment provided by the zoo for the amusement of its visitors. According to the
Unbelieving, wide-eyed tourists pressed their noses up to the cage to get a better look. As they moved on to the next cage they were in for another surprise, as there, a great Royal Bengal tigress was lolling on her side and suckling 6 tiny piglets.
‘Momma’ tiger Saimai is two years old and as a baby was suckled by a pig until she was
Although these pictures might appear charming and innocent, the AWI noted back in 2004 that there may be a darker side to the Sriracha Tiger Zoo, as press reports stated that Sriracha was under investigation for illegally breeding protected wildlife for commercial export and had been implicated in the sale of a hundred tigers to China (where there is strong demand for tiger body parts for use in traditional Chinese medicines). The AWI also noted that in late 2004 the zoo was closed for a month when between 80 and 100 tigers died or were euthanized due to an avian influenza (probably spread via the raw chicken carcasses fed to the tigers) that swept through the facility.
