Meet Altai – the new Amur tiger in Yorkshire

18.4.2025 – Source: Yorkshire Wildlife Park, Photos by Pat Waldron

Yorkshire Wildlife Park has welcomed a new Amur Tiger!

The young male tiger travelled over 1135 miles from Norway to join YWP’s resident tigress Tschuna at the Park.

Altai

Tschuna

Altai, 3, was born at the Norwegian Zoo, Dyreparken, and is now ready to start his own family on recommendation of the European Endangered Species Programme.

He arrived late on Thursday 27th February. He was very calm and quiet on arrival and not in a hurry to come straight out his crate until Section Head of Carnivores, Bex Brown, tempted him with a piece of meat. He was soon relaxing in the house.

The proceedings were watched with great interest by Tschuna who made encouraging noises to him.

Tschuna was treated with a big piece of meat

Director of Animals, Charlotte MacDonald said: “We are thrilled to welcome Altai here at the Park and are looking forward to Tschuna and Altai being introduced when the time is right.

“Tschuna arrived at the Park in 2013 and gave birth to three cubs two years later.

“All three of her cubs moved to different parks round the world to be part of the vital species breeding programme. One has joined the American programme and is a father already at the Cleveland Zoo, Ohio.

“We hope that Tschuna will enjoy the new company and that in time they can contribute to global conservation efforts to protect this incredible species.

Altai

“We are delighted with Altai. He is a beautiful, huge cat and very calm and receptive, his keepers at Dyreparken have clearly done a great job with him. It will take him a while to settle in at the Park as it is a big change for him but hopefully he will be out in the Land of the Tiger in the coming weeks.’

“He is very curious and interested in what is going on and I am sure he will be a massive hit with our visitors.”

The big cat has now taken his first steps out into one of the main reserves at YWP’s, ‘Land of the Tigers’ but it will be a while before he can be introduced to YWP’s resident tigress Tschuna.

Land of the Tiger is a two acre complex of reserves made up of woodlands, grasslands and its own waterfall pool, which will be much to the delight of Altai whose favourite activity is playing in water.

Altai’s previous keeper, Even Grønnerø said: “Altai is a nice and calm tiger. He loves his training, eating and especially enjoys playing in the water outside.”

Amur Tigers, more commonly known as Siberian Tigers, are the largest big cats in the world. The average weight for males is 160-190kg, while females are smaller, at 110-130kg.

Gorgeous Altai

Beautiful Tschuna

In the last 100 years the world has lost 3 subspecies of Tiger, with Amur Tiger numbers dropping to around 50 individuals several decades ago. International awareness and conservation initiatives have helped to push their numbers back. The most recent IUCN Red List assessment, published in 2022, estimated the population at 265-486, but they do remain endangered.

YWP prides itself on its global conservation efforts, working closely with the WildLife Foundation, the charity based at the park.

The Foundation has previously supported a WildCats Conservation Alliance and funded a rescue and rehabilitation centre at Alekseevka in Russia, to rehabilitate and reintroduce Amur tigers into the wild. It is hoped that Altai will become an ambassador for the species and visitors will contribute to future projects for wild tiger conservation.

Director of Animals, Charlotte MacDonald said: “We are thrilled to welcome Altai here at the Park and are looking forward to Tschuna and Altai being introduced when the time is right.

“Altai has taken a while to settle, and we have given him plenty of time and space to do this at his own pace. We’ve seen his confidence gradually build and we’re delighted to see yesterday that he was brave enough to take his first steps out into one of the main reserves at Land of the Tiger.”