Go see the Amur tiger cubs at Wichita’s zoo

I cheered when I heard that a tiger at our local zoo, the Sedgwick County Zoo, had given birth to two cubs this summer. More tigers in the state of Kansas is always a good thing for this Mizzou grad!

But it’s not just my collegiate loyalty coming through — who doesn’t love the chance to see tiger cubs! The cubs were born to 8-year-old Talali on July 6 of this year and they were introduced to the public in late September. Lee and I finally made it out to see them this past weekend. The female is named Natasha and the male is Tsar. Natasha was very active on the day we were there — she climbed around on her mom, play-attacked her brother, climbed on a tree and she wasn’t shy about coming up to the window of the exhibit. Tsar stayed toward the back of the exhibit while we were there. It was fun to watch him practice his ferocious hissing, although he might not have been practicing — he had a noticeable limp when we saw him walking and the keeper said it’s from roughhousing with his sister.

Get out and see the babies while they are still little balls of fur — the zoo is open throughout the winter and Amur tigers are a species native to Russia, so they should be on display even as the weather gets colder.

Here are a few favorites of the tiger photos I took on our visit: