London Zoo’s plan for a new state-of-the-art tiger conservation centre is expected to be granted permission at a council meeting tonight (Thursday).
The zoo’s two Sumatran tigers, Raika and Lumpur, are housed in a 600 square metre enclosure with a limited viewing area.
But the proposed enclosure would be 2,400 square metres and would be large enough to house a whole group of breeding tigers.
Only 300 wild Sumatran tigers exist worldwide and the entire species could be extinct in the wild if numbers continue to decline at the current rate.
The new enclosure forms the focus of the zoo’s Tiger SOS campaign which was launched earlier this year to raise �2million for the conservation centre.
The enclosure will consist of two open areas which can be separated when required, two open pools, and two internal areas providing heated shelter and dens.
Viewers will be guided around the perimeter of the new centre with upper, lower and internal viewing areas.
Sumatran tigers, whose habitat is the forests and jungles in the Indonesian island of Sumatra, are threatened by poaching, habitat loss, and conflict with humans.
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