7 December 2022
We’re devastated to share that Inca, one of three Sumatran tiger cubs born in June to parents Asim and Gaysha, was discovered dead in the Tiger Territory enclosure on Wednesday morning.
She had been seen playing happily with the rest of her family earlier that morning with no evidence of illness or injury, but shortly after the tigers went into the outdoor paddock after breakfast, keepers doing their usual checks saw Inca lying unmoving behind a log. They immediately called the tigers inside and made their way into the enclosure, but Inca had already died.
Nobody saw what happened, but the physical evidence suggests Inca was likely injured by a single swipe from another tiger. It’s not uncommon for tiger parents to give cubs a warning swipe in the course of normal parenting, but sadly this caught Inca in a delicate area of the skull and she is thought to have died instantly.
Zookeepers will be keeping a close eye on the rest of the tiger family closely over the coming days and will continue to explore the circumstances surrounding this sad death.