00:00We're just outside of Noah's Ark where the new tiger's habitat is way underway as part of Project Canivora.
00:07Let's step inside to find out more.
00:10I'm standing right in the middle of this amazing tiger habitat that we're building for the rescue tiger aqua that's going to be coming to live here.
00:18We've designed this very much with tigers in mind and the things that they love.
00:22So you can see behind me is a platform. Big cats love to lie and bask and look at the outside world from high areas.
00:32And so these kind of platforms are great for tigers. They'll jump up onto the two levels.
00:38It also provides shade and so on really hot days there's lovely shade underneath it.
00:43And you can see there's mature trees inside the space.
00:46We've actually built the habitat around lots of mature tall trees as well and that creates natural shade.
00:54And there's also some climbing opportunities.
00:57So over to this side of me there's some large trees that we've planted in the ground.
01:02And so aqua the tiger will climb up the trees and we'll actually feed, we'll put meat up in the trees as well.
01:10So that's kind of ways of feeding that fit in with tigers' natural behaviour.
01:14There's also a pool and you may not know that tigers actually love water.
01:20It's unusual for cats but they're one of the big cats that does love water.
01:24So we know aqua as an individual, he loves to swim and they've got a small pool where he is in Spain.
01:31So we decided part of what we're going to create here at Noah's Ark is a really lovely big pond.
01:36And that's actually just been finished.
01:39We've filled it with water for the first time and we're now looking forward to aqua arriving and going for a swim in his new pond.
01:45And can you tell us a bit about aqua and his story?
01:49Yeah, aqua has a really moving back story.
01:52He was rescued from the border, the Poland-Belarus border, a few years ago.
01:58And he was being shipped out there with nine other tigers illegally.
02:03He was being illegally trafficked.
02:05And we think probably he was being traded for traditional medicine.
02:10And thankfully this horse box that he was in with these other tigers was intercepted at the border.
02:15And then he, along with the other tigers, were rescued by an international rescue charity called AAP.
02:23And he was taken to their rehabilitation centre in Spain to recover from the ordeal.
02:29And we started speaking to AAP about a year ago.
02:34And we're really excited now that we're at a point where we've built a space for aqua to come
02:39and be happy and to be well cared for.
02:42And this will be his forever home.
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