A Sad Day...

It was reported yesterday that our beloved Siberian Tiger "Tomar" passed away. Tomar was the real life mascot of the Moncton Wildcats (Ray's hockey team) as well the Magnetic Hill Zoo. Before moving here, I have said that I wanted to go to the zoo to meet and see Tomar. Sadly, I will never get that opportunity. Click here to read the accompanying article in our local newspaper. I was sad when Ray gave me the news, but was even more shocked at how blunt the article was about his demise. As you can see, the headline reads "Tomar the tiger dies" and the very first sentence of the article is "Tomar is dead." I guess they don't sugarcoat anything up here!

This evening at the Wildcats game there was an announcement about his death and clearly took some of the crowd by surprise (he was a fan favorite). Tomar had been sick for the past year with renal failure. He was 19 year old, which I'm told is quite old for a Siberian Tiger. I guess his 9 lives were just up.

Here's some additional information on this breed of tiger...

Siberian Tigers are the largest of the living cats. Their average weight is 500-700 pounds and the length of the body is 8-10 feet. The record weight for this species is 845 pounds. These animals can be easily recognized by their remarkable coat, which is long, dense and very warm. In summer the coat is more reddish than in winter. The dark stripes on the yellowish coat disrupt the outline of the body in dense cover and make Siberian Tigers almost invisible to the prey. Of all Tiger species Siberian Tigers have the palest coat and the fewest stripes.

Siberian Tigers are very massive and powerful with heavily muscled limbs and shoulders. All their body is adapted to hunt large prey. Hind limbs of a Siberian Tiger are longer than forelimbs to facilitate jumping. Their paws are very large and equipped with long retractile claws that are ideal for grabbing and holding the prey.

The jaws are very strong and the teeth are sharp. Eyes of a Siberian Tiger are situated in the front that allows for evaluating the distances better. These creatures are able to peel skin away from the prey and rasp flesh away from bone with a rough tongue. Siberian Tigers have a loose skin in the belly to minimize the hurt of kicking by prey.