Liger Zoo - Harbin China (Harbin Zoo)

China’s Harbin Zoo is also a Liger Zoo as well, as it offers at least 2 ligers at its animal enclosures. This Liger Zoo has at least 2 ligers at its premises and it is located within China’s Harbin Zoo. If you are living at China’s Northern Areas around Harbin region, then the best spot for you to experience the liger is to go to China’s Harbin Zoo. The exact address of this Liger Zoo is “Harbin Zoo, No. 95 Hexing Road, Nangang District, Harbin 150000, China”. The Harbin Zoo is massive and it has largest numbers of big cats than any other big cats in China. This Liger zoo has around 100s of lions and Siberian tigers. Even some of the enclosures at this liger zoo are shared by lions and tigers together.

Harbin Zoo in china is also classified as a Liger Zoo because of presence of the ligers at its premises. Photo Courtesy of www.ligerworld.com

Currently; as mentioned earlier, this liger zoo has at least 2 ligers. One of the ligers is a male liger, while the other liger is a female liger. The male liger in the photographs looks massively huge. This male liger is most probably the biggest liger in China. The weight of this male liger in China’s Harbin Zoo is around 880 to 900 pounds. The female liger is also massive in terms of its size and it weighs around 400 to 500 pounds in weight. Both the male liger and the female ligers are part of this zoo since the year 2009. Therefore; the expected ages of these two ligers are around more than 5 years at least. The male liger also appears to have a huge mane around his neck and his mane is most probably the biggest one ever observed within our studies of ligers so far.

Picture of a male liger at Harbin Liger Zoo in China. Photo Courtesy of www.ligerworld.com

This Liger Zoo has made significant contribution for the preservation of the big cats; especially for the Amur Siberian tigers. Each year the Harbin Zoo releases significant numbers of tigers back into the wild where they live freely and enjoy a huge space of hundreds of kilometers. Ligers are part of animal conservation program and they are also the brand ambassadors for the big cats as well. The best thing at this zoo is that you can always visit the zoo and feed the liger with yourself. All you have to do is to buy a meal (Meat) for a liger and you can serve it to the liger. Many people criticize feeding of live animals to the ligers and other big cats at this zoo which definitely looks very cruel indeed.

The presence of a liger offers big cat conservation at Harbin Liger Zoo in China. Photo Courtesy of Amelia

The enclosures of the ligers, sadly speaking are not that much bigger. The flooring of the enclosure is concrete and there is no mud or any swimming opportunity for the ligers. So we can suggest; that the Harbin Zoo should have a rather big enclosure for this massively big cat and there should be a water pond for the ligers. Ligers just like tigers love to swim. As compared to the ligers, the enclosures of the lions and tigers are huge, but these enclosures are shared with at least 50 to 100 lions and tigers. The current enclosures of lions and tigers are safe and secure for the visitors as they are guarded by very high steel fences. The enclosure does offer a great view to look at the ligers and other big cats, but these enclosures at least for the big cats should be bigger for the ligers.

A liger at its enclosure within Harbin Liger Zoo. Photo Courtesy of Wu Photography

Among events, the biggest well known event regarding this liger zoo is that it is criticized at a global level for feeding live animals and birds to the predators such as ligers, tigers and lions etc. On most of the occasions, a live chicken is thrown inside the enclosure of the animal. You will have to purchase the chicken and will have to award your purchase to the animal that eats its alive. However; some photographs also show that a raw meat is also awarded by the visitors to the big cats. Further; video evidence also shows that a live calf is left within the enclosure of at least 20 tigers, which ate that innocent calf while it was still alive. It is up to the visitors to basically condemn such acts, and only award ligers and other animals a raw meat rather than a live prey.

A visitor offering a meat to a liger at Harbin Liger Zoo in China. Photo Courtesy of  Wu Photography

But apart from this, this liger zoo has made significant contributions towards the conservation of the big cats especially for the Siberian tigers. People always love to visit this zoo and show a greater degree of satisfaction regarding animal conditions. The Harbin Zoo also gives its visitors to have a wild animal safari, within tigers and lions’ enclosures. Tripadvisor.com and yelp.com has a lot of positive reviews about this zoo. However; most of the negative reviews about this liger zoo is regarding their feeding of the live animals to the predators which most of the people have condemned online. Apart from this, it is a perfect place to go and experience awesome creatures of nature such as tigers, ligers, and lions etc.

Harbin Liger Zoo is a very popular zoo because of the presence of ligers. Photo courtesy of www.liger-hercules.com

Questions