Sumatran tiger cubs make DC debut
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The National Zoo's 14-week-old Sumatran tiger cubs-- Marah, Jalan and Besar -- made their first public appearance Wednesday accompanied by their mother, Solyono.
Zoo members were allowed to see the cubs for a couple of hours Wednesday morning. The zoo plans to have them on exhibit every morning until mid-September.
The cubs, born May 2, have already developed very distinct personalities, zookeepers said.
"Marah is closest to his mother," keeper Marie Magnuson said. "He's smaller than the others and he's a little bit of a mama's boy, but he's also the fiercest."
"Jalan is, I think, going to be the smartest one," Magnuson said. "Besar, he's the most self-confident. He's a little bigger. He's the first one to go up the stairs and down the stairs and do things like that. He's the brave one."
The cubs will grow to as much as 300 pounds in the next 12 months. Sumatran tigers are the smallest of the five tiger subspecies.
Taking care of the cubs takes several hours a day, but the keepers said the mother does most of the work.
"Today she's seems to be working on teaching them to come back down the stairs to go inside. They pretty much figured out how to get outside on their own," Magnuson said.
The cubs are the third generation of Sumatran tigers for the zoo. Once they reach adult size they may be sent to other zoos around the United States.
Sumatran tigers are considered an endangered species and are found only on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Only a few hundred exist in the wild, about 200 in captivity.
