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Our unique early morning visit to the Tiger Trek exhibit at Taronga Zoo, proudly sponsored by NexGard SPECTRA®, immediately resonated with us as cat owners. This partnership supports the critical work of Taronga Conservation Society Australia—a leader in conservation, research, and animal welfare—to secure a sustainable future for wildlife.
By Australian Cat Lover and Caroline Zambrano, Pet Journalist
The reason this story resonates so strongly with us is simple: Sumatran Tigers and domestic cats share a remarkable lineage.
Both are members of the Felidae family, are obligate carnivores who must eat meat, and possess retractable claws. They share similar survival behaviours, using stealth for hunting, and their cubs, like kittens, engage in play-fighting to develop essential skills.
It's a reminder that protecting all felines, big and small, matters to us all.
Our early morning tour quickly immersed us in the serious conservation message behind the critically endangered Sumatran Tigers.
The Conservation Story: A Fragile Population
The Sumatran Tiger is the smallest tiger subspecies, with males typically weighing around and females about 80-9. Its survival is critical, especially when viewed through the lens of history: it is the last of the island tigers. Its closest relatives, the Bali Tiger, disappeared by the 1940s, and the Javan Tiger was presumed extinct by the 1980s. The Sumatran Tiger is now the final island feline fighting for existence.
Listed as Critically Endangered (CR), fewer than 350 individuals remain in the wild with only around 50 breeding pairs. Their decline is driven by illegal deforestation and poaching linked to unsustainable palm oil production.
Taronga combats this through a holistic approach, dedicating its efforts to maintaining a genetically diverse "insurance population" in human care. The zoo's current Sumatran Tiger family includes mother Kartika, father Clarence, uncle Kembali, and Kartika's three cubs born on January 17, 2019: Mawar ("Rose"), Tengah Malam ("Midnight"), and Pemanah ("Archer"). The birth of these three cubs was globally significant, representing nearly 1% of the world's remaining wild Sumatran Tiger population.
Daily Care, Advanced Training, and Veterinary Husbandry
Behind the scenes, caring for Taronga's Tigers requires extraordinary teamwork and meticulous care, overseen by a dedicated carnivore unit of at least eleven keepers responsible for both the tigers and lions. Much of their work involves adapting principles of domestic pet care to a massive, wild animal.
Training Behaviours for Health and Safety
Ellen explains that the training regime is based on protective contact (keepers never share the same space) and positive reinforcement (clicker cues and food rewards).
To celebrate this partnership, you have a chance to WIN 1 of 4 Roar & Snore Family Packages at Taronga Zoo Sydney! This prize includes overnight accommodation for 2 adults and 2 children, a guided tour, and up to $4,000 in travel/flights (depending on the winners' location).
To Enter:
Taronga combats this through a holistic approach, dedicating its efforts to maintaining a genetically diverse "insurance population" in human care. The zoo's current Sumatran Tiger family includes mother Kartika, father Clarence, uncle Kembali, and Kartika's three cubs born on January 17, 2019: Mawar ("Rose"), Tengah Malam ("Midnight"), and Pemanah ("Archer"). The birth of these three cubs was globally significant, representing nearly 1% of the world's remaining wild Sumatran Tiger population.
Keeper Ellen, who has worked with Taronga's tigers for 11 years, recalls seeing Kartika born as a cub herself back in 2011.
"It's a real full-circle for me," she smiles. "I was here when Kartika was born and now I've seen her raise cubs of her own".
Before the cubs were named, keepers identified them by their unique stripe and tail patterns. Mawar, for instance, had a distinctive "slug tail" marking.
Ellen adds a fascinating fact "their stripes go all the way to their skin, unlike a zebra's coat. If you shaved a tiger, you'd still see the pattern!".
Daily Care, Advanced Training, and Veterinary Husbandry
Behind the scenes, caring for Taronga's Tigers requires extraordinary teamwork and meticulous care, overseen by a dedicated carnivore unit of at least eleven keepers responsible for both the tigers and lions. Much of their work involves adapting principles of domestic pet care to a massive, wild animal.
Training Behaviours for Health and Safety
Tigers are taught their names from a young age, just as one would teach a "next level" domestic pet at home. This early foundational training is essential for building the trust required for future veterinary procedures.
“We train
health behaviours, not tricks,” she says. “They’re taught to lie along the mesh
so we can give hand injections, open their mouths for dental checks or flick
their tail through a slot for blood draws. It’s all by choice and
reward-based.”
This allows the team to carry out
essential veterinary care such as vaccinations and blood
sampling without stress or sedation, replacing older and more invasive methods
like dart guns. Each session is short – around five minutes – to maintain focus
and ensure the tigers stay eager to participate.
Husbandry Secrets: Diet, Enrichment and the Domestic Link
Keepers use various techniques to keep the tigers stimulated and healthy, often mirroring the thoughtful enrichment provided to domestic cats:
- Water Affinity: Unusually for a cat, the Sumatran Tiger loves water—a behaviour linked directly to its anatomy and hunting strategy. Keeper Ellen noted this unique trait, explaining, "They have partially webbed paws, so they use it quite readily out in the wild to be able to hunt animals. They'll chase them into the water, because those kind of ungulates (hoofed animals) that they're chasing aren't the biggest fans of water." The tiger's affinity for water is a striking contrast to the average domestic cat!
- Enrichment Play: During our talk, Pemanah demonstrated his playful side, actively licking a huge block of ice (which hid a delicious trove of chicken feet), repeatedly dropping it into the water and then fishing it out for a few more crunches. These treats supplement their main diet of carcass feeding schedules (up to 25kg for the males) to encourage natural behaviour.
- Scent and Rewards: Tigers, including uncle Kembali, love scent-based enrichment like essential oils and native herbs.
- Taronga's carnivore team also ensures the tigers receive seasonal parasite protection, similar to domestic cats. For overall protection, the tigers, along with other zoo animals like Mary the Sun Bear and the Binturongs (bear cats), occasionally receive treatments similar to NexGard SPECTRA®, primarily given in summer to prevent flies and parasites that can cause skin irritation and serious risks like paralysis ticks.
Empowering Conservation Action
The Tiger Trek exhibit itself is designed as a three-part narrative that immerses visitors in the Sumatran jungle, illustrating the landscape before unsustainable palm oil, depicting a devastated plantation, and finally, showcasing a restored forest achieved by choosing Sustainable Palm Oil.
The Tiger Trek exhibit itself is designed as a three-part narrative that immerses visitors in the Sumatran jungle, illustrating the landscape before unsustainable palm oil, depicting a devastated plantation, and finally, showcasing a restored forest achieved by choosing Sustainable Palm Oil.
The Sumatran Tiger's fate is closely linked to our choices as consumers. An interactive shopping station allows visitors to scan every products and see whether they contain unsustainable palm oil, encouraging visitors to send emails to manufacturers - a campaign that has already generated over 192,779 emails since 2018.
"Those emails really make a difference," says Ellen. "We've already seen so many changes."
Keeper Ellen says her connection to the tigers remains the highlight of her career:
"They recognise our voices and uniforms, and often our faces too," she says. "It's pretty incredible. They aren't many people who can say, I train a tiger."
For Keeper Ellen and for everyone visiting Taronga Zoo, the message is clear: the survival of the Sumatran Tiger depends on us all - our actions, our choices and our compassion for cats great and small.
NexGard SPECTRA® leverages this conservation focus by actively supporting Taronga’s programs in Sumatra. This includes a commitment to donating $50,000 to protect Sumatran Tigers and their habitats.
Readers can help save the Sumatran Tigers by protecting their own pets: a donation is made with every pack of NexGard SPECTRA® Spot-On for Cats sold during the months of October to December.
This product, launched in
WIN a Roar & Snore Experience!
To Enter:
Demonstrate how you are a Next Level cat owner in 25 words or less by leaving a comment on the NexGard SPECTRA Australia Facebook page.
- Competition Period: 1st October 2025 – 31st January 2026.
- Prize: Roar & Snore Family package (2 adults, 2 children), including overnight accommodation + travel/flights.
- Terms and conditions apply. See link in the original competition post for full details.
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