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Zephon is a Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) subspecies. Bengal tigers are the only tigers to naturally give birth to cubs with lighter - including white - coats. Here he is in his new enclosure - this may be day 1 or 2 in the new enclosure, so he's still getting acclimated to it. He spent part of that day laying in the same spot looking around and sniffing, also walking his perimeter and spray marking several places and leaving his scent and scrapes on the ground, claiming this as HIS area now! He's so beautiful and really friendly. |
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Zephon is a pretty big kitty, and having the opportunity to be up close to him, though never without a fence separating us, it's truly awesome to see just how large they really get. His paws were much larger then my hands - he's a HUGE tiger. In this picture, taken right after the one above, he saw something he thought was really interesting ... |
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Well maybe not so interesting after all ... |
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"First - scratch the itch!" |
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"Second - wash the paw" |
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"Now, and only now will I let you photograph my profile" The photos above were taken in May or June '01. The following is a short series of photos taken during the winter. |
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He loves to get his ears, neck and shoulders scritched, and also he loves laying out in the sun on his perch. Note the look of sheer bliss. Also note how fluffy and thick his fur is. Here he is in his full winter coat. When giving him scritches like this I always had to be really careful and aware of where my fingers were. I wasn't worried so much that I might get bitten as I was that he'd roll over suddenly and trap my finger between the wire and his body, bruising or breaking it. This tiger seemed to just really really love attention, and he accepted me from day one. |
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Even more blissed out - here he's getting shoulder and neck skritches. Can you see how big his head is? I don't know if you'll be able to see it but look really closely at the position of his paws, guess he was really happy eh? If you can't tell he's got his front legs crossed in front of his chest holding one leg with the other. I just HAD to include this photo. It's one of my very favorites. Did I mention how thick his fur is? |
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"Hey, you with the camera. Instead of taking my picture, would you come over here and give me belly scritches, please?" He loves to get his belly rubs, and would actually roll over on his back and wait for them, sometimes on request, always patiently. |
