WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — In an enclosure shadowed by tall trees entangled among natural Florida greenery, Olan stood proudly behind metal wiring separating him from Palm Beach Zoo’s onlookers.
Among the sound of rustling leaves and a trickling waterfall, the 11-year-old tiger momentarily stared up at a large log — his access point connecting trail corridors for the zoo’s new neighboring habitat.
Upon a call from his trainer, he leaped upwards into the corridor above all the zoogoers and stared downward while the sun beamed above him. Then, he swiftly entered the neighboring corridor, where a trainer awaited with his favorite treat: goat’s milk in a bottle.
Olan is the newest addition to the zoo’s tiger habitat, which opens to the public Saturday. This “Tiger Forest” also rotates two other Malayan tigers, Api and Kadar.
In announcing Olan’s debut to zoogoers, zoo officials held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday to unveil the elevated trails connecting the three enclosed habitats — a feature making this South Florida zoo unique to other habitats nationally. Patrons hope other conservatories also build corridors so tigers can mimic behaviors they’d have in the wild, said Erin Ward, the zoo’s vice president for marketing.
Yet despite Olan’s recent arrival, he’s conformed seamlessly, said Callie Carpenter, an associate curator who works with Olan. Every tiger is different, she said, but Olan is “bold,” and she recounted Olan’s playfulness with giant boomer balls or large tubs of water.
“Olan would take those tubs and just dump all of the water out and try to rearrange the furniture,” Carpenter said. “Rather than just like, you know, ‘I’m going to play with it a little bit,’ he would just be bouncing off the walls excited about the enrichment items.”
Since Olan’s arrival from a zoo in El Paso, Texas, he’s revealed to the zoo’s caretakers his agility through the habitat’s trails, his endearment to smelling cinnamon and his wild playfulness.
Another role Olan brings to the conservatory is his potential to mate with the female tiger, Api. The zoo hopes to breed the tigers to preserve the endangered species, yet the zoo’s veterinarian Carrie Ullmer said it takes lots of examinations to determine whether the tigers’ genetics are compatible.
“He moved here to give us an option to maintain genetic diversity by being potentially paired with Api in the future,” Ullmer said. “We want to make sure before we put them together that she is absolutely healthy enough to maintain the pregnancy.”