ROANOKE TIMES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 11, 1990                   TAG: 9007110209
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ED SHAMY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium


KITTY BIG ENOUGH TO START TIGER HOUSE

Ruby the Siberian tiger may soon get new quarters at the Mill Mountain Zoo.

The zoo intends to build within months a dramatically scaled-down version of the 20,000-square-foot tiger habitat it originally planned, said Beth Poff, the zoo director.

She said two committees of the Blue Ridge Zoological Society of Virginia met Tuesday and decided to put to work $60,000 that has been amassed in a yearlong fund-raiser.

Many people and companies have offered materials and services toward the new tiger quarters, and Poff said the society does not want to keep the donors waiting until hundreds of thousands of dollars can be raised to build the full impoundment.

The full tiger habitat, with enough space for as many as five tigers, could cost as much as $600,000. Originally, it was expected to cost about $225,000.

Poff said she hopes to meet within days with the architects of the tiger habitat to devise a way to build the smaller exhibit so that it can later be enlarged.

"Whatever we come up with, it's got to be better than what she's in now," she said. "We want to give her some room."

Meanwhile, Ruby lives in a circular cage with a 25-foot diameter. The 350-pound cat has been at the zoo since late 1988, when she was confiscated from the person who owned her illegally. The stay was to have been temporary, but the zoo decided to keep the tiger and credits her with rekindling interest in the Mill Mountain Zoo.

The zoo hopes to become part of the North American Species Survival Program for Siberian tigers, and to become a breeding zoo for the species.

Ron Tilson, who coordinates the program from his post at the Minnesota Zoo, applauded the Roanoke zoo and said space is needed to house Siberian tigers.

"I could have tigers in Roanoke within a week," he said.

There are currently 59 zoos housing 400 purebred Siberian tigers in this country, he said.

Before Mill Mountain Zoo is admitted into the program, it must pass the species survival program's muster for living conditions and care, said Tilson.

In the meantime, Ruby is not being harmed by her stay in the small cage, he said.

"It's hard for people to imagine, but felines - even large felines - don't mind life in rather small, confined spaces," he said. "But I understand it's tough to see an endangered species in jail."

Poff said the board preferred not to scale back its plan and to abandon the breeding possibilities. The zoological society will meet next week to decide when and how to start a major fund-raising campaign late this year, she said.



 by CNB