Tbilisi Zoo newcomers you should know about – white lions and tigers

Three white Bengal Tigers born in November where joined by the four very rare breed White Lion cubs one week ago. Cubs are being isolated right now and the administration says they will be shown off in the spring when the weather will be warmer. The information about their birth will go to the EAZA (European Association of Zoos and Aquaria) and since white lions are a very rare breed some of them will be send to other zoos around the world soon. So be in hurry to see them in Tbilisi Zoo, like our journalist and photographer did. See all  photos  "In Pictures".

Khatia

Khatia, one of the staff members of the Tbilisi Zoo said they rarely could save the white lion cubs after taking away from their mother because they had been almost frozen.  

"Thanks god we managed to do so and saved all of them, she says. We asked several times for a  possibility to take their pictures but she denied us for their safety. "Maybe we will manage to go to the tiger cubs but lions are strictly isolated, she said.

Khatia is a very interesting person who is aware of everything what happens at the zoo after the Zoo director, Zurab Gurielidze. Being an MA student of Life Sciences at Ilia State University and the student of the well known zoo director, she came to work at the zoo one year ago.  

In the trip around the zoo she, has been our guide."Where to go first? she asks. After half a minute thinking, we agree it is better to go to the predators first and we start our trip.

Happy Couple

Cleopatra and Samuel are the 3 years old couple who are the happy parents of four newly born white lion cubs and one of the most loving couple at the Tbilisi Zoo.

See more photos of this family  "In pictures".

However, Cleopatra is a little bit angry now because her new cubs were taken away due to strict weather conditions in Tbilisi recently. As the zoo staff member, Khatia explained she was also unable to take care on her cubs because this is the first time she gave birth.  

"Cleopatra has grown up with the zoo director. She had been living in his room for some time. So she is more social than Samuel who was raised by his mother, Khatia explains.

Samuel, who is affectionately called Sam, is a careful husband. When the zoo administration was trying to take the cubs away from their parents, in order to save them, Sam was jealously defending his family.

"It took a long time and heavy fight to get the cubs from the cages, Khatia said.

In general Sam is calm but you never know what he will do He is a true king. When our photographer tried to take his picture from a closer distance, it took a hundredth of a second for Sam to appear at the very edge of his cage, close to the bars behind which the photographer stood.

Bengal Tigers

In the next cage, the white Bengal Tiger Cameroon is aggressively observing our every move. She is also angry. She has no children, nor husband.  

Her cubs and mate Maximus were also separated from her recently. Maximus moved to the next cage with the Ussuri female tiger Salima what makes Cameroon angry but Khatia told us that she will be given her family back soon.

Simba and Bombora

Then comes Simba, a very playful and funny lion who loves to caress, however, he is still dangerous if you happen to be very close to his cages bars.  

Then, we go to Bombora (means oversized in Georgian). Bombora is a name of a cheetah who was raised by Khatia and thats why he looked happy to see us.

"Why Bombora? I do not know. I just called him once by this name and thats it, Khatia explained the reason for giving oversized as a name to a very beautiful  cheetah. "He had a lack of Calcium and because of this, now his legs are somehow curved but this does not prevent him from running fast, she says caressing her favorite animal.

The black lines around Bomboras eyes make him look like he is crying but as Khatia explained these are to support the leopard when hunting. The lines diminish the direct sunlight in order not to hinder the leopards sight when running 120 km/h.

Wolfs

Nearby Bomboras cage, there are Caucasian wolfs. They have surprised us by their standing manner all lined in a row. "They are waiting for food probably, Khatia suggested.

As we found out Tbilisi Zoo is full of 'white' animals. Besides the Bengal Tigers, there is also very rare breed White Rhinoceros and very beautifully printed Albinos Python.  See the photos of these rare animals "In pictures".

The star of social media in Georgia

After leaving the exotic world, we headed to the white tiger cubs when suddenly, we noticed a well knownCiveta who became a social network star recently.  

The case is that a group of teenagers decided to set him on fire for an unexplained reason. This was fortunately prevented by the zoo administration but Civeta was frightened and did not come out of his lair for a long time. The story and the picture were published on the Facebook page of the Tbilisi Zoo. This later resulted in enormous fun for Civeta. We were happy to see he is all right now and decided to communicate again.

Newborns

When we finally reached the tiger cubs, we found out that we had to wait for Mrs. Guliko who is the famous mother of every animal born at the Tbilisi Zoo. As soon as she arrived, we entered a specially heated room with the three cutest white tiger cubs.    

Two girls and one boy tiger cubs were born on November 7 and already look well grown up. One of them is already named as Columbus by Mrs. Guliko because of his curiousness and need to study everything around the room.

After learning that Mrs. Guliko is also taking care of the white lion cubs next door to the tigers, we renewed our efforts to gain their pictures and Mrs.Gulikofinally agreed to show them us!

The cubs are very small yet. Looking at them, it was hard to believe they will grow up as strong lions in the future, like their father Sam and mother Cleopatra.  

One of them is already named after Khatia since she saved her by warming her when they were taken away from their mother. Khatia seems as much excited looking at them as we do, although she sees them every day.  

She says that the information about their birth will go to the EAZA (European Association of Zoos and Aquaria) and since white lions are a very rare breed. Then some information will be sent to other zoos around the world soon.