It was time to pay Bakso another visit—after all, he’ll be celebrating his first birthday soon!! He was born on September 26th last year to mom, Sohni, and dad, Conrad, and DAK apparently has quite the celebration planned to celebrate the end of his first year.
There’s reason to celebrate beyond Bakso himself, too. He was not only the first Sumatran Tiger to be born at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in seven years, but an important part of the conservation efforts for this critically endangered species. Their numbers in the wild are down to a devastating fewer than 600, with perhaps only 400 mature individuals. With major threats ranging from from habitat loss, poaching, and the expansion of agriculture (including palm oil crops, as if we needed another reason to eliminate this from our diets), not to be corny but our boy Bakso isn’t just a lone cub having a birthday, he’s a symbol of hope.
Sumatran tigers are a critically endangered subspecies native to the Indonesian island of Sumatra. They’re the smallest of the living tiger subspecies with darker orange fur and black stripes that are closer together, both adaptations that help them to blend better into the dense tropical forests where they live. They also have webbing between their toes that helps to make them great swimmers, and you’ll sometimes see them playing in the water in their habitat at DAK.
You can visit Bakso and his parents on the Maharajah Jungle Trek in the Asia section of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Just walk back toward Kali River Rapids and you’ll find the entry back there. Lots of other good stuff in this area too—the bird aviary where I take so many pictures is on this trail, along with the giant flying fox bats. It’s always tough for me to get over there super early with the kids’ school schedules, but if you can manage to visit in the mornings or otherwise when it’s a little cooler out, you’re more likely to see Bakso and most of the other animals more active. But he’s pretty cute even when he’s just taking a nap.
And in case you were still wondering about the name of this photo, Bakso is the Indonesian word for meatball! As if I didn't want to squoosh him enough already. 🤗🥰🐅
Took this with my 100-400mm at 400mm, 1/160 second, f/6.3, ISO 320 and leaned into a dreamy vibe in edits.