Can the keepers play with the cubs, or go in with the adult tigers?
Absolutely not!! Soyono would have a fit if we tried to play with the cubs, and they would be terrified! When you see tigers in shows or circuses they have been hand raised by humans and handled by people from the day they were born. Even then, they will always be dangerous animals because they will always be tigers. No matter how early you start or how hard you try, you can never train a tiger to be anything but what it is: a beautiful, awe-inspiring hunter. Our tigers here are raised by their mothers, and while the keepers do have a very special relationship with the cats, we are not tigers and they are not humans or pets and that is just the way it is. We wouldn’t want it any other way.
