On April 13 – just over two weeks ago – our female Amur tiger named Agnes gave birth to two healthy cubs. Both the mother and her young currently need peace and quiet, so for now only their keepers and those Zoo staff who specifically work with the big cats are allowed near them. Everyone else, including visitors, will need to wait a little longer. We expect the cubs to be visible to the public in a few weeks, although we cannot give an exact date just yet. We’ll make sure to let you know when the time comes.
The birth is especially joyful because the last time this happened was in August 2013. Those cubs, named Grusha and Macan, have since grown up and moved to other zoos.
The parents of the new cubs first met last year. Agnes, the mother, was born on July 5, 2021, at the zoo in Hluboká nad Vltavou in the Czech Republic and spent her early years there. She arrived in Budapest on February 1, 2024. The father, Dáriusz, is slightly older: he was born on April 21, 2017, at the Debrecen Zoo and joined us on April 19 last year. We brought the pair here with the goal of breeding them as part of the tiger breeding program coordinated by the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA), contributing to the conservation of this increasingly rare big cat species.
Although visitors can’t meet the cubs just yet, we’ll be sharing regular updates about the “Stripe Squad” in the coming weeks, including interesting facts about the newborns, about tigers in general, their conservation status in the wild, their natural behaviors, and the long history of tiger keeping here in Budapest. So keep an eye on our Zoo news!
