Darius Has Arrived

It’s no secret to our Zoo friends that we are working on forming a young breeding pair of tigers, with the goal of having tiger cubs again in the future (the last ones were born in 2013, but they have since grown up and currently reside at the Miskolc Zoo). Agnes, the three-year-old female from the Czech Republic, has been living at our Zoo for three months now, and we have just acquired a male tiger named Darius, who turned seven last month and came from Debrecen, where he had lived since birth. Although the animal is officially known everywhere by the Persian name Darius, the keepers often call him Igor.

Both Darius and Agnes are Siberian tigers. This subspecies of striped big cats was first introduced at our Zoo in 1937, and since 1971, we have continuously housed Siberian tigers. It’s worth noting, however, that the name “Siberian” can be a bit misleading. These animals are not native to Siberia in the strictest sense, but rather even further east, in the Russian Far East, in the Amur and Ussuri river regions. That’s why Siberian tigers are also known as Amur tigers.

Returning to Darius, for now, he is still separated from his future mate, but we have begun the process of introducing the two animals. In the meantime—except for Saturday, May 4, when, due to technical reasons, he will spend the day in the backstage quarantine area—you can see Darius in the northeastern section of the big cats’ enclosure system, near the Reptile House (Mérgesház), where the jeeps are located.