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Tiger Cares for Piglets and Vice-Versa

March 31st, 2007 by ben

The Sriracha Tiger Zoo in Thailand is famous for their unique attractions, fun shows, and the ability for tourists to get close to (and often touch) the tigers. However, the most famous attraction is the couplings of pigs and tigers:

Tiger and Pigs

These pictures show two year old Saimai, a Royal Bengal tigress, with the six piglets she is raising.

Tiger and Piglets Playing

The tiger doesn’t seem to mind the unclothed piglets, so I’m guessing the costumes were just meant to put on a cute show for the tourists. Either that or she ate the first set of tiger-clad piglets and the zoo hasn’t had time to create new outfits.

Cute tiger and a pig with a bow

While the zoo and all press materials claim the pairings are completely benevolent, I personally wonder if Saimai just views her pig-raising duties as a long “getting ready for dinner” ritual.

Two pictures of tiger and pig

Fittingly, Saimai herself was cared for and nursed by a pig:

Sow nurses pigs and tigers

Thanks Renee!

Posted in Pictures, Cute, Random |

32 Responses to “Tiger Cares for Piglets and Vice-Versa”

on 31 Mar 2007 at 5:39 pm Gili

Hey,

Your blog rocks! nice job. I subscribed to your feed!
Come to visit when you have some time.

Gili
on 31 Mar 2007 at 6:33 pm piger

isn’t all this kind of cruel? i mean, we’ve all heard of feral children before (children raised by wolves, etc, etc). they turn out totally different than if they were to be raised by humans. can a tiger raised by a pig, or a pig raised by a tiger turn out “normal” as a tiger, or as a pig, respectively? sure, it’s cute and all, but aren’t we just being cruel in letting a tiger get raised in this way?
on 31 Mar 2007 at 7:55 pm Anita Bath

piger - good question … would it be less cruel to let the tiger be “a tiger” and eat the pigs?
on 31 Mar 2007 at 10:32 pm Anthony

Okay, so in Lion king, the little cub tries to roar like a lion and it comes out as a meow. I wonder what the pig will try to do…

Anthony
The Insane Membrane
on 31 Mar 2007 at 11:34 pm Bunk

I was raised by wolverines. And possums. No, wait. Just wolverines.
on 01 Apr 2007 at 12:31 am Sir Lex Luthor

That is great! The tiger skin clothes are cool! Wish I had one, hmm wait, I have tiger skin boots!

Well, they are fake but look really cool!
on 01 Apr 2007 at 4:56 am Freelance Cynic

Aw! Portable Pork..
on 01 Apr 2007 at 9:10 am BOSSY

Bossy wonders if someday her children will brag that they themselves were raised and nursed by a pig.
on 01 Apr 2007 at 12:05 pm Tisha

dinner is already served…6 little piggies!

very cute to see them together ^.^
on 02 Apr 2007 at 12:37 am piger

anita bath: why would letting the tiger eat the pig be cruel? wouldn’t that just be nature at work? and…before the argument of vegetarianism arises, let me point out that we’re talking about animals and not humans. animals don’t have the moral understanding that is behind vegetarianism, so to suggest that the tiger shouldn’t eat the pig out of cruelty is like expecting that a lion in the wild won’t hunt and eat a gazelle. a lion wouldn’t know any better.
on 03 Apr 2007 at 1:17 am sciurine

Hey, really like this blog. Awesome past time!!
on 03 Apr 2007 at 10:17 am Anita Bath

piger - I don’t think it’s cruel at all, you’re right … it’s natural. Allowing a pig to raise a tiger isn’t necessarily cruel either unless the handlers then relocate the tiger back out to the wild.

But that could be said of any zoo animal. Keeping them in a zoo doesn’t seem so bad if they have a large enough area and are happy … releasing them into the wild unequipped seems cruel.
on 03 Apr 2007 at 8:31 pm Inflammable Hamster

You have to wonder where they got the tiger skin coats…

Edit: I just noticed that three of them were pink… lol my bad.
on 05 Apr 2007 at 12:54 pm Sprite

I had the same thought as soon as I saw the picture: she’s gonna eat her kids. Then after thinking about vice versa… the kids are going to eat their mom! Yikes! I’m glad it’s doable, but I hope they get weaned before disaster happens! Wow! I’m amazed.
on 06 Apr 2007 at 4:21 pm booglerumpher

ok this is a little weird but it’s also kind of cool
on 09 Apr 2007 at 11:39 am GOOFYBLOG » Blog Archive » Raised by Tigers

[…] Say No to Crack (more […]
on 25 May 2007 at 4:01 pm amber

that is so coll. i cant belvie my eyes.i m moved
on 31 Jul 2007 at 12:55 am Emi

that is so cute
on 19 Aug 2007 at 8:37 pm golly dolly

hay that piger is kinda rude just back off its cute and u have no say in things piger. if that tiger wants to nurse the pigs thann ok.
on 28 Aug 2007 at 5:34 am JD

Piger,

A mother tiger who lost her babies and gets depressed.
Piglets that would have been raised in horrible conditions to get slaughtered into porkchops, are the only babies available at the time.
Now, everone seems happy.
What do you want?
We could argue that they would be happier in the wild but it’s still better than nothing.
on 28 Aug 2007 at 5:53 am Tiger Cares for Piglets and Vice-Versa : Hardcore Phunk or Maybe Not

[…] clipped from www.saynotocrack.com […]
on 04 Dec 2007 at 1:47 pm cece

that is so stupid what was really the point of doing that like common now can some one really explain to me,

how come the pigs are with a tiger the last time i checked pigs and tigers dont go no where together. Pigs are raised on farms and TIGER ARE RAISED IN THE WILDERNESS DUHHH…
on 04 Dec 2007 at 2:34 pm mandyyy

thanks for the help your making with these adopted animals reared by other species. it’s marvellous
on 14 Dec 2007 at 6:25 pm Alexis

i thought that all of the pictures were amazing!the most amazing part to me in the description was that the mother lion decided to nurse the piglets after losing her own to cubs!its astonishing!she was so depressed she was willing to take others in!
from IZ
on 14 Dec 2007 at 8:40 pm Gemma and Rebekah

Hello.
=].
We think that these pictures are the CAUTEST pictures evvvvvver!
:D!.
So caute…could make ya cry! ;(! lol.
XD!.

Love Gemma and Rebekah!
xxxx….VOTE THE TIGERS AND THE PIGS! lol
on 27 Feb 2008 at 3:35 pm Pixi

I don’t see what’s wrong with it. The animals are in a zoo anyway; it’s hardly a natural environment. Who cares if the piglets grow up thinking they’re tigers, or the cubs thinking they’re pigs. It’s not going to harm them in their future lives, is it? I mean, I doubt they’d seriously consider releasing the tigers or pigs into the wild anyway, so they won’t have a chance to live a natural life. Isn’t being hand-reared on a milk bottle worse than being nurtured by an animal from a different species?
on 17 Mar 2008 at 7:37 pm Pigluver

I think that it is pretty cute and tht whoever thinks its wierd can just shut up. So what if a tiger is nursing pigs?! W/E!
on 10 Apr 2008 at 2:46 am DG II

wow!!!

they look cute together…

i love those pics….
on 23 Apr 2008 at 11:45 am John

I think if the tiger raises the pigs it should be aloud to eat them when they are full grown.
on 04 May 2008 at 10:13 am lucy

this is outrageous, did you see the tiger skins on the piglets. this is against nature. this is not what god intended
on 05 May 2008 at 10:50 pm Fabián Fucci

Beautiful. What else can I say?
on 08 May 2008 at 8:19 pm kage

Lol @ it being against nature. If god’s got a problem with it, I’m sure he’s capable of fixing it. Who knows, might be the last straw; an adoptive abomination and now he’ll smite us all!