ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, July 31, 1996 TAG: 9607310046
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
MILL MOUNTAIN ZOO hopes to launch a tiger breeding project. But Ruby may be only a bridesmaid.
Make room, Ruby.
The Mill Mountain Zoo is preparing to launch a campaign next month to raise money for a Siberian tiger breeding project.
A corporation with a longtime commercial attachment to tigers, Exxon, is expected to help underwrite the campaign in cooperation with Crestar Bank. Zoo director Beth Poff said the goal is a minimum of $500,000.
The breeding project would become the second phase of the zoo's tiger program, which first focused on building a proper home for Ruby, its famed Siberian tiger. In 1991, Ruby moved from a cramped corncrib to a new $65,000 habitat, paid for by individual and corporate donations.
The zoo has applied to become part of a worldwide conservation effort - called a "Species Survival Plan" - to prevent the five remaining subspecies of tigers, all endangered, from becoming extinct. Only 200 to 300 Siberian tigers are living in the wild, said Amy Chattin, education curator for Mill Mountain Zoo.
"The whole intent is to breed pure Siberian tigers in order to raise their numbers," Chattin said. "Zoo biologists have said that the Siberian tiger could become extinct in the next five years."
Ninety-three zoos in the United States and Canada are participating in the tiger conservation effort, and 56 of them have Siberian tigers, said Kathy Traylor-Holzer, conservation biologist with the Minnesota Zoo, where the plan is based.
Participating zoos contribute to the conservation effort not only by breeding tigers but also by conducting research and housing tigers that may be past their breeding prime but need a place to live, Traylor-Holzer said.
Approval of the Mill Mountain Zoo's application is pretty much a sure thing, because the zoo already participates in survival plans for other animals, including the red panda, the tree kangaroo, the white-naped crane and the red wolf, Traylor-Holzer said.
Last year, Exxon Corp. pledged up to $5 million over five years to tiger conservation projects all over the world. So far, through its Save The Tiger Fund, Exxon has given $1 million in grants to help long-term survival of the remaining five subspecies of tigers.
John Blandford, Exxon distributor territory manager for the Western Virginia region, said regional Exxon stations wanted to bring home their parent company's effort to save an endangered animal that has been a corporate symbol for so long. The stations and Crestar are providing seed money, possibly as much as $30,000, to kick off the campaign. The stations have sought funding from the Exxon Corp., though not from its Save the Tiger Fund, Blandford said.
"Local distributors wanted to do something with the Mill Mountain Zoo to educate the public here in Virginia," he said. "We all know about Ruby. She was a natural tie-in."
Ruby, however, will be only a program mascot.
"We can't use her to reproduce, primarily because we don't know her genetic lineage," Chattin said. For breeding purposes, "we have to keep the gene pool as clean and diverse as possible," she said.
The zoo would not divulge specifics of the project, choosing to save them for a news conference scheduled for next month. Participation in the conservation effort will require that the zoo expand its facilities.
Will Ruby soon find herself in the company of other Siberian tigers?
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