The Harbin Tiger Park (Not for the squeamish)

[Non-Dave]

Cheeky inspired me and although I don't have my own personalized "bald guy" icon I thought I would share a few pictures...

1. Majestic even in captivity.


2. Cute and pathetic at the same time.


3. Check out the faces of the people on the bus. Not a good day to be a cow.


4. One of my favourite pictures.


5. Be afraid... be very afraid!


6. A cute, cuddly little thing... and a baby tiger... and me.

[Mr Nobody]

Cool, Dave. I like big cats.

[Newbs]

Dave, good stuff. Colours vary a bit in these cats, right?

[Ruth]

At the animal safari park in Shanhaiguan there was a stadium set-up where you could pay extra money and go watch the show. Our friend translated for us. The 'show' was watching the big cats chase down a cow for dinner. We passed. Much more civilized where I come from. The humans kill the cow before feeding to cats in captivity. Could take a page from the Chinese businessperson's book and make a few extra bucks out of the spectacle. Some animal rights groups would be all over them, though.

Nice pics, Non-Dave. I like the one where the shadow of the fence frames the tiger's face.

[Non-Dave]

Newbs, it's called the tiger park, and most of the cats are tigers but they have a nice enclosed corrider you can stroll down and look at a wide variety of captive cats of many varieties.

I think the highlight of the place (?) is when they start throwing the live chickens out to the pack of thirty or so hungry tigers, followed by a very sad looking cow - with the tour buses packed around. For a few kuai you can also buy a bit of chicken and feed the tigers from behind a cage.

A day of fun for the whole family.

[Ruth]

Well, it is real life. No one can pretend these guys are vegetarians.

[gengrant]

I like vegetarians. They taste like chicken.

[uberzilla]

The top shot is very good. It show the massive shoulder structure on these things.

Request the permission to potentially use this for reference in an illustration.

[acjade]

I love all the photos of the big cats, too Dave. I hope you got another one of the sign....looks like a classic.

[Non-Dave]

UberDude, go for it. I'll send you my agents details...

Jade, I missed the sign, but I'm going back as soon as the weather turns - I'll make sure I get a good shot of it.

I purposely didn't post some of the more gruesome photo's (yes, I too was one of those guys pressed against the window of the bus while the cow was devoured).

[Crippler]

I too love big cats.. These pictures bring back memories of 35 years or so. I used to raise big cats as I owned a small zoo in Canada. I once owned the Cougar that was in the Canadian Mercury Cougar commercials. As well, had several lions, three leopards (one of my favorite cats) one of which was black, a huge tiger that was a real pussycat, a couple of ocelots and a very large male jaguar that was great with me but would not work with anyone else... All of them were hand raised and while they didn't like each other very much they thought I was their best friend...