We Bought a Zoo, released in 2011, is a comedy drama film based on the memoir of the same name by Benjamin Mee, the film’s central character. Cameron Crowe directs the movie, with Matt Damon starring as the main character. The movie tells the story of how widowed Benjamin Mee and his kids decide to move in into a new home, which just so happens to come with a broken down zoo. In an effort to keep the zoo from closing permanently and the animals having to be sent away and put down, the Mee family along with the zoo staff work hand in hand to prepare the zoo for public viewing and learn about taking care of the animals along the way.
One of the most notable animals living in the zoo is a tiger named Spar, an aging big cat who Benjamin desperately tries to save from being euthanized.
Tigers are actually the largest cats in the animal kingdom—a distinction many think belongs to the lion. A certain subspecies, the Bengal tiger, is known for its size and weight. Bengal tigers are Bangladesh’s and India’s national animal and have become a symbol of these countries. These tigers are natives of the Bengal areas in South Asia. There are more Bengal tigers alive, in captivity and in the wild, compared to other subspecies. They have an estimated population of 1,550 to 1,909 in India, about 124 to 229 in Nepal, 67 to 81 in Bhutan, and 440 in Bangladesh.
In 2010, the Bengal tiger has been marked by the IUCN as one of the most rapidly disappearing endangered species in the world. In an effort to preserve the species, numerous nature reserves and conservation centers have been supporting the breeding of these animals. These cats come in an orange-yellow coat with black stipe markings, but are also known to have white coat and black stripes. This is a gene mutation, resulting in white tigers that not only look different, but are larger than normal-colored tigers.
Bengal tigers are of course, carnivorous animals that prefer to wander off alone and hunt alone. They can be social when around other tigers, but they do not travel in groups. They prefer to hunt and live unaccompanied.
Bengal Tiger Video
