On the evening of March 11, Woodland Park Zoo picked up a special delivery at SeaTac Airport: three Malayan tiger brothers named Liem, Eko and Olan. The 1½-year-old tigers traveled on FedEx cargo shipping from Little Rock Zoo, Ark. where they were born, accompanied by two of their caretakers from Little Rock.

Woodland Park Zoo staff brought the tigers to the zoo’s feline building where they were unloaded from their individual traveling crates into a behind-the-scenes area specialized for big cats. Here, the cats are undergoing a standard 30-day quarantine period, and the zookeepers can monitor their health and establish training and care routines with them, as part of the zoo’s exemplary animal care program. “This month-long period allows the tigers to acclimate to their new surroundings while off public view, to get to know their new keepers, to adjust to their new diet, and to settle in comfortably,” said Martin Ramirez, Woodland Park Zoo’s mammal curator.

Visit http://woodlandparkzblog.blogspot.com/2015/03/cats-on-plane.html for photos of the crates and tigers. The tigers currently range in weight from 200 to 220 pounds each.

Liem, Eko and Olan will be the star conservation ambassadors in the zoo’s new exhibit, Banyan Wilds, opening May 2. Guests will have an up-close experience of watching natural behaviors such as the tigers scratching and jostling trees, splashing in a pool, and napping under the shade of a banyan tree. The exhibit complex represents a transformation at the heart of the zoo and finalizes a 2-acre complex that will take guests on a journey exploring the world of tigers, sloth bears, Asian small-clawed otters and an aviary of tropical birds.

A host of “Show Your Stripes” activities are being planned for the May 2 exhibit opening. Stay tuned to www.zoo.org for updates.

The Malayan tiger is one of six subspecies of tigers and ranges in peninsular Malaysia. The males, larger than females, weigh on average between 220 and 264 pounds. Fewer than 300 Malayan tigers remain in the wild, facing primary threats such as poaching for their skins and body parts for traditional medicine, habitat loss, agricultural, logging and other human developments, and retaliatory killing by farmers for attacks on livestock.

In 2012, Woodland Park Zoo and Panthera, leaders in wild cat conservation, established a 10-year, $1 million partnership to enhance tiger conservation in Peninsular Malaysia, as part of Panthera's Tigers Forever Program. This Malayan tiger project builds partnerships and works with The Malaysian Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) and other government agencies and non-profit organizations to save wild tigers by collecting data, educating the public, increasing awareness and training staff on anti-poaching methods. The nonprofit research group Rimba, co-founded by Dr. Gopalasamy Reuben Clements and Sheema Abdul Aziz, serves as the Malaysian partnering organization and leads the field work for the project.