Tiger feeding frenzy not for faint-hearted

Drip. Drip. Drip.

That’s the sound of blood dribbling from the Siberian tiger’s teeth. It runs along its jaw and finally, splat, drops onto the snowy floor.

The steady trickle melts the pristine powder, turning it into a swirling mess of claret and white while the beast carries on, unperturbed, enjoying its prize.

Its orange and black coat is ruffled and stained as it rips out the chicken’s feathers with a ruthless efficiency.

The wind shifts. And the tiger pauses.

It catches my scent as I stand motionless just metres away.

As its green eyes meet my blue ones, the big cat bares its bloodied teeth and delivers a low growl: this is my kill.

Message received.

I take a few steps back from the thin, mesh fence that separates me from one the world’s largest carnivores and let out the breath I’d been inadvertently holding since it fixed its gaze on me.

Not many people get within metres of wild, undrugged tigers and live to tell the tale, but at one of the world’s biggest tiger sanctuaries in Harbin, China, it’s all part of the experience.

Occupying nearly 160 hectares of land, more than 500 purebred Siberian tigers roam the snowy fields, as well as a collection of lions, ligers (a mix breed between tigers and lions), leopards and black pumas.

In order to see these apex predators, the tourist has to become an adventurer and travel into their enclosures in a selection of armoured four-wheeled drives and buses.

Metal wires cover the windows as the bus trundles through young, mature and king tiger areas as well as a lion enclosure and others.

Used to seeing humans, the tigers carry on as usual.

One is stalking a pheasant, two others are cuddled together to escape the bitter chill of the wintry air while a fourth decides to jump onto the bonnet of the car in front to check the blood pressure of its occupants.

But as exhilarating as it is to be among the tigers in their almost-natural habitat, watching them feed on live game is not for the faint of heart.

Some will find the practice barbaric and cruel and others will be fascinated. Either way it’s hard not to be enthralled by the sheer ferocity of these big cats devouring their prey live.

At Harbin, visitors can purchase strips of meat ($4AUD), live chickens ($10), pheasants ($13) or even fully-grown cows ($400) to be put inside an enclosure with around ten live tigers.

While the result is predictable, it still shocks.

Three or four tigers watch hungrily as the cage holding the live chicken is slowly lowered into the centre of their lair.

The cage shudders, stops and for a moment everything is still.

Then it opens, and the predators pounce.

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Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au

Latest comments

sting says:
February 6, 2015 at 2:44 pm
…… yeah, but if you are actually feeding them then it’s not naturally in the wild… i mean jeees…. a whole cow… that’s heartless..
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china Harbin Siberian Tiger Tiger Sanctuary