There are nine recognised tiger subspecies, of which only six remain (21st Century Tiger). In 1900, three of these subspecies could be found in Indonesia - the Bali tiger, the Javan tiger and the Sumatran tiger. Today, only the Sumatran tiger remain, with the last reported sighting of a Bali tiger and a Javan tiger in 1937 and the 1970s respectively.

The Sumatran tiger is the smallest of the remaining six subspecies, and has inhabited the once extensive moist and tropical jungles of Sumatra, Indonesia, for over a million years. Due to large scale timber exploitation, tiger poaching and illegal trade in tiger parts for use in traditional medicines, the number of Sumatran tigers has drastically fallen. Furthermore, fragmented habitats force the tigers to venture into settled areas in search of food, where they are often destroyed. Today it is estimated that there are only 400-500 Sumatran tigers remaining, many in small and isolated populations.

Adelaide Zoo is part of a worldwide captive breeding program, with the recent arrival of a breeding female securing our important role in the ex situ conservation of this species. Furthermore, this captive breeding program links us to in situ conservation projects in Sumatra that aim to protect the few remaining wild individuals. As an ARAZPA institution, we contribute towards the Kerinci Seblat National Park Tiger Protection Program and the Jambi Project through the ARAZPA Tiger Campaign. Through Adelaide Zoo’s Planetkeeper program, Zoos SA have also donated more than $14,500 towards 21st Century Tiger www.21stcenturytiger.org, a unique wild tiger conservation partnership between the Zoological Society of London and the Save the Tiger Fund where 100% of funds raised go directly to wild tiger projects.

Further donations towards in situ Sumatran tiger conservation are raised through Adelaide Zoo’s Boileau Behind the Scenes Tours. Come and visit our Sumatran tigers on the “Big Cat Encounter” tour, learn more about them directly from their keepers, and personally contribute towards Sumatran tiger conservation.