Captive Siberian tigers fear overweight due to winter feast

Tiger keepers in a northeastern province in China have found a novel way to keep their cats in shape over the winter — a cat and mouse game, but the mouse in this instance is the keeper’s vehicle.

The staff at the Siberian Tiger Park in Heilongjiang, a world leader in tiger breeding, realized that the tigers always followed the feeding truck around their enclosure, so the keepers turned into coaches and started to drive the vehicle around between meals.

Captive tigers eat about 8kg of meat each day, and the staff at the Siberian Tiger Park feed their big cats 10 percent more in winter because of the cold, said Liu Dan, with the park.

If the cats do not exercise they will gain weight and, like humans, if they are obese they are at risk of high blood pressure, metabolic disorders and could die earlier.

A male adult Siberian tiger normally weighs around 250 kg.