Endangered Sumatran tigers born in Greece as zoos build safety net

The world’s most endangered tigers have started a family in Greece, offering hope for a predator rapidly vanishing from the wild.

Three two-month-old Sumatran tiger cubs received identification microchips and their first vaccinations on Tuesday at a zoo near Athens, as part of a global effort to build a backup population.

The Sumatran tiger, classified as critically endangered, is found only on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, which is slightly larger than Sweden.

As few as 400 are believed to remain in the wild, mainly because of aggressive forest clearing. It joins the South China tiger and the Malayan tiger in the category of severe risk.

“The Sumatran tiger is one of the most threatened tiger species in the world, and among felines in general,” said Theodoros Babilis, head keeper of cats and monkeys at Attica Zoological Park.

Zoos in Europe and elsewhere were maintaining a safety population, he said, “so that in the future there can be potential reintroductions of this species into the wild.”