Malta is not very well known for hosting exotic species as can be seen by the lack of zoos and animal reserves. So it comes as a surprise and an eyebrow-raiser when exotic species are reported. On Saturday news surfaced that an extremely rare species of tiger, also known as ‘the golden tiger’ was born and bred in Malta as well as currently living at the island sanctuary known as Noah’s Ark in Siggiewi. The tiger, also known as Johanna has a strawberry coat, making her stand out. It is unclear whether the sanctuary hopes to keep Johanna in Malta, however as most animal lovers will argue, Malta is not the right place to keep such exotic, beautiful creatures, regardless in the wild or in captivity.
This is not the first time news has surfaced about exotic animals being held in unnatural habitats in Malta. Back in 2016, images of a beautiful baby cub surfaced the web, gaining traction among the Maltese. At the time, majority of the public were unaware that ‘zoo’ was in fact illegal. The Montekristo Animal Park hosted numerous tigers, lions and jaguars that were undoubtedly living in conditions not deemed fit for animals their size. Once this was learnt among the public, the animal park was shut down and left in a limbo-like state without contingency plans for the animals. A spokesman of the park owner said :
One of the first things we did was to start trying to find somewhere to put
these animals, but it hasn’t been easy. It’s not like we can move them to
government facilities; we’re talking about tigers, not cattle.
Thus, with such previous history when it comes to exotic animal wildlife, Malta can be seen as a less than adequate habitat. There is still plenty of information pertaining to Johanna and the animal sanctuary that is yet to be published. However, one thing is for certain, there are and will be numerous animal lovers such as myself demanding answers and updates regarding the famous golden tiger’s welfare.
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A super interesting read!
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