THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 21, 1996 TAG: 9608211015
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 83 lines
The tiger twins turn 4 today.
The Virginia Zoo's 300-pound Siberian cats will get some special treats from their keeper, Betty Schmitt, to mark the occasion.
She has bought them a ``weasel ball'' - a battery-operated, baseball-size sphere with a fake, flip-flopping weasel attached to its outside - that they can watch through the wires of their habitat. She's also going to toss them a couple of big, juicy watermelons to play with, then destroy.
The tiger sisters moved into their half-a-million-dollar, state-of-the-art habitat nearly a year ago. It was paid for, in part, through a fund-raising campaign spearheaded by Exxon dealers. The city matched funds for the project.
The tigers came to the zoo as cubs after U.S. Fish and Wildlife agents confiscated them from black-market pet traders in another state. Their stay, meant to be temporary, became permanent. Now they're right at home, and they're the zoo's biggest draw.
Today, only about 200 Siberian tigers remain in the wild. The species is threatened by extinction because their natural forest habitats in Siberia and parts of Korea are being destroyed, Schmitt said. Also, tiger parts are in demand in the illegal medicine and aphrodisiac trade, she said.
On Tuesday, the pair played tag and boxed with each other briefly after a hearty breakfast of ribs, which they ``crunched right through,'' Schmitt said.
``This is the most active I've seen them in a long time,'' she said, watching them romp like children.
``They're pretty cool,'' said 7-year-old Michael Mettendorf of Virginia Beach. He visited the zoo with other children from Little Creek Youth camp. Michael said that the last time he had seen the tigers, they were much smaller. He used his hand to show that they stood about 2 feet tall back then.
Shere Khan and Shaka Khan won't get anything special to eat today - just the usual whole chickens and slabs of horse meat.
They'll also chow down out of the public eye, as always, since ``a lot of things they eat are kind of gruesome - rabbits, pigs' heads, oxtails,'' Schmitt said.
The zoo celebrates the tiger twins' special day as it prepares to launch the next phase of a campaign to raise $15 million to start a master expansion and upgrade plan.
Plans are to create an African display, complete with a tribal village, and to add zebras, giraffes and lions to the African animals already at the zoo.
Long-term plans include displays featuring other continents and a Dismal Swamp exhibit.
A community celebration at the zoo Nov. 2 will launch the fund-raising effort.
In Tuesday morning's heat, Shere Khan and Shaka Khan didn't overdo it. They stretched out on opposite sides of the habitat for cat naps.
Shaka, who has more black tail bands and notches on her ears than her sister, was stretched out on her back with her big front paws propped up on some bamboo shoots. Her orange-and-black hide twitched every few seconds, and her tail made an automatic pass over her belly in an attempt to keep the flies off while she dozed.
``She's more laid-back than Shere,'' Schmitt said.
Shere, the more aggressive of the pair, crossed her paws and snoozed beneath another stand of bamboo.
The tigers are bound to enjoy their birthday toy, Schmitt said, since they love to watch things move - a moving wheelbarrow, for example, always brings them bounding from one end of their 8,000-square-foot habitat to the other.
One year, she bought them a remote-controlled car. But what they like to watch best are people, Schmitt said.
Some days she finds their big, muddy paw prints smeared on the inside of the thick viewing glass, where they can get closest to people.
Schmitt shows off a big plastic ball with a gaping hole and deep claw marks.
``This is what I show kids when they say, `Can you go in with them?' '' she said.
Despite their ferocious appearance, the big cats are wimps, Schmitt said.
``They hide under the bushes in thunderstorms, like they're asking, `What is it, mom?' '' she said. ``They're just big chickens.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
RICHARD L. DUNSTON/The Virginian-Pilot
At top, one of the 300-pound Siberian tiger twins at the Virginia
Zoo shows off her fangs. Only about 200 of Shere and Shaka Khan's
species exist in the wild. by CNB