San Diego zoo’s new Tiger Trail home to endangered Sumatran tigers

San Diego Zoo Safari Park is opening a new tiger habitat, all the better to show off its six Sumatran tigers.

The 5.2-acre Tull Family Tiger Trail has three separate yards, said Randy Rieches, Safari Park’s curator of mammals.

“We have one of the largest collection of Sumatran tigers of anywhere in the world, and certain sections of the new Tiger Trail allow visitors to see cats on both sides” of the exhibit as they walk on the trail, Rieches said.

Delta, the 16-year-old matriarch of the family, is mother to 4-year-old sisters Joanne and Majel and 2-year-old brothers Thomas and Conrad. The sixth tiger, Teddy, a 10-year-old male, arrived in February from the Fort Wayne (Ind.) Children’s Zoo as a breeding partner for Delta.

Sumatran tigers are critically endangered, with fewer than 400 left in the wild. Like the Bengal tiger, it is reddish brown and its stripes are almost vertical. They are the smallest of the tiger subspecies, but small is a relative term. The males of the species may weigh 300 pounds or more.

Safari Park has had 25 Sumatran tiger births. Rieches says cubs usually stay with their mother for up to two years, as they would in the wild. Each pair of littermates is displayed together.

Six cameras are positioned around the exhibit to create a live video feed for a tiger cam.

Safari Park’s website has added a “Stripe Yourself” app that lets you add stripes to photos to become a tiger. A Tiger Trail conservation game is also available as an iOS app.

Tiger Trail admission is included with the park ticket, which costs $46 for a day for adults and $36 for kids (3-11).

Info: San Diego Zoo Safari Park, 15500 San Pasqual Valley Road, Escondido; (760) 747-8702.