A zoo in Wuhan in central China has denied claims that its tigers are not being well fed after a guest reportedly filmed the animal eating soil in its enclosure.
The video was uploaded to social media by a netizen named Wang, who spoke to Chinese platform Pear Video and said that he did not see any food in the white Bengal tiger’s enclosure in Wuhan Zoo after he took a closer look, Mirror reported.
Wang also condemned the zoo’s staff for mistreating an animal.
However, Wuhan Zoo claims that the tiger is healthy and denies all accusations of mistreatment. The zoo’s official account on China’s top social media site Weibo said the tiger had just eaten a whole chicken right before the video was recorded and that the tiger was only finishing off bits on the ground.
They said that the tiger is seven years old, weighs around 120 kilograms and is healthy with a good appetite.
A spokesperson for the zoo said in a statement to Beijing Your Daily, that if the tiger eats too much it will gain a lot of weight.
There are around 2,500 Bengal tigers left in the wild. The White Bengal tiger is extremely rare and its notable color is the result of the absence of the pigment pheomelanin.
