IRAQ: The big cats of Baghdad

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Tigers have not fared well in Iraq. Under Saddam Hussein, they languished in zoo cages, hungry and haggard. During the 1990 Persian Gulf War, they survived on scraps provided by sympathetic zookeepers. And after Hussein’s ouster in 2003, one of the two tigers in the Baghdad Zoo was shot and killed by a U.S. soldier.

With the arrival of two Bengal tigers from a North Carolina sanctuary for endangered animals unveiled Friday at the Baghdad Zoo, Iraqi and U.S. officials are hoping the future is brighter for tigers here. Technically cubs at under 2 years old, the tigers -- Hope and Riley -- nonetheless weigh about 150 pounds each and showed rows of fearsome teeth as they played with rubber toys and splashed about in a pool in their zoo enclosure.

The tigers are the latest addition to the zoo, which fell into disrepair after the U.S. invasion in 2003 as zoo workers fled and looters rampaged through the grounds. When the looting ended, only a handful of the zoo’s hundreds of animals remained, the others having been killed or stolen to be sold.

The survivors included two Bengal tigers, but a few months later, a U.S. soldier shot the younger, 11-year-old cat to death after it mauled the hand and arm of another soldier. Zoo officials said at the time that the troops had been drinking and that the mauled man was drunk and had put his arm into the cage to feed the tiger. U.S. officials said tests determined the soldier was not drunk, though he had consumed beer against Army regulations.

The second tiger died of old age at 20, in 2005, leaving the zoo tiger-less until now.

In a country where untold thousands of innocent people have died since the latest war began, a tiger’s violent death might not be expected to cause much consternation. Not so. A zoo veterinarian, Haidar Malik, said Friday he was quite certain that the donation of the new tigers was a U.S. move to make up for the 2003 incident.

‘I don’t think it was a coincidence. They are trying to compensate for the one killed back then out of good will,’ he said as a horde of journalists snapped photographs of the animals splashing in their pool. ‘It’s a very good initiative by their side, and they are helping a lot.’

But U.S. officials said the tiger event had nothing to do with the 2003 shooting. That was an ‘unfortunate incident’ caused by the tiger ‘mauling another soldier,’ said U.S. Embassy press attache James B. Fennell.

The embassy paid the $66,000 to transport the tigers from North Carolina, but Fennell noted that the private Conservators’ Center -- not the U.S. government -- donated the cats. ‘It’s really a private transaction between the zoo and the donor organization,’ he said.

Since the zoo’s reopening in July 2003, four months after the U.S. invasion, U.S. forces have been involved in a major effort to refurbish the facility in central Baghdad’s Zawra Park.

‘This day is a historical day for the Baghdad Zoo,’ said Adil Salman Mousa, the zoo director. ‘We are really happy today. We want to bring smiles back to the kids and the public, who faced years of deprivation.’

Mousa said zoo attendance has soared as Baghdad’s security situation has improved. In 2006, 120 people a day at most would visit the zoo. Now, at least 2,000 to 3,000 visit each weekday and weekends bring tens of thousands of visitors, according to Mousa. He said the zoo has 62 species and a total of 788 animals.

This being Iraq, the tigers’ trip was conducted under special security. A military convoy transported the animals by road from the airport to the zoo on Thursday. Iraqis who lined up in the morning to see the new arrivals went through body frisks and handbag searches.

The zoo has spent more than a year preparing for the tigers, including preparing a new living space for them and training zoo staff on their dietary and other needs. Nonetheless, at least one animal rights group opposed the donation, arguing that Baghdad remains too unstable to provide a safe home for endangered species.

‘Our heart goes out to the two tigers who had to endure the long trip to Iraq and a dangerous future at the Baghdad Zoo,’ Lisa Wathne of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said, according to the Associated Press. ‘These tigers will be caged, helpless and completely dependent on humans to survive in an area where many people live in fear and are still without access to basic necessities,’ AP quoted Wathne as saying in an e-mailed statement.

Her concerns did not appear to affect Hope and Riley, who frolicked in their pool, nor visitors such as Ali Mohammed, who was at the zoo with his wife and two sons. ‘It’s lovely today that my children are seeing these tigers,’ Mohammed said, adding that he hoped the attention being lavished on them Friday would last.

‘I will come and see them again another time, and I hope they will be in the same good shape they are in now.’

-- Caesar Ahmed and Tina Susman in Baghdad

Photos by Saad Khalaf