The Leicester Tigers are celebrating the extension of their adopted family in India.
Last season the club teamed up with Tiger Nation to help raise awareness of tigers in the wild and assist in their protection. We have followed the progress of a family group led by Jaya and her four cubs. Now, the family has welcomed three new cousins.
At half-time in last October’s home game against Northampton Saints, it was announced that Tigers supporters had named Jaya’s cubs Johnno, Murphy, Trya and Crumbie.
Julian Matthews of Tiger Nation has since provided us with regular updates about the family and their movements. These updates, as well as pictures, are added to the Tiger Nation page in our Junior Tigers Club section of the club website to allow our members to follow their story.
In Julian’s latest update, he tells us that Jaya’s sister, named Vijaya, has had three cubs of her own to expand the family further.
He adds: “Bandavgarh closes its park gate to visitors at the end of June, as the monsoon rolls across the continent from the eastern shores, and will now remain the preserve of nature and its human protectors alone for the next four months.
“Mum Jaya remained in her favourite haunt, the meadows of Rajbehra and the rocky slopes of the Badhaini hills. She is now separated from her first litter of four cubs, as they have grown up and gained independence.
“Johnno, her only son, is the only hanger-on, as if – like his human counterparts – he keeps coming back to Mum to be fed and get his laundry done.
“Young males in a world of ferocious competitors and closely-guarded territories make it a dangerous place for Johnno, if not quite so for his sisters Murphy, Trya and Crumbie who are more likely to be gathered up by dominant male tiger rather than chased and banished from their lands.
“Johnno knows his time with his mum is now very short and it will be years before he can challenge a dominant male for his own kingdom and the right to start his own family. This means being banished from the land of his birth to some less well-kept forest bordering the park, or a hair-raising journey to a patch of forest in which he can live and grow strong for the challenges of adulthood.”
JTC members receive regular updates from Tiger Nation through their Splat email newsletter. You can learn more about the family by clicking here or sign up to our Junior Tigers Club here.
Last season the club teamed up with Tiger Nation to help raise awareness of tigers in the wild and assist in their protection. We have followed the progress of a family group led by Jaya and her four cubs. Now, the family has welcomed three new cousins.
At half-time in last October’s home game against Northampton Saints, it was announced that Tigers supporters had named Jaya’s cubs Johnno, Murphy, Trya and Crumbie.
Julian Matthews of Tiger Nation has since provided us with regular updates about the family and their movements. These updates, as well as pictures, are added to the Tiger Nation page in our Junior Tigers Club section of the club website to allow our members to follow their story.
In Julian’s latest update, he tells us that Jaya’s sister, named Vijaya, has had three cubs of her own to expand the family further.
He adds: “Bandavgarh closes its park gate to visitors at the end of June, as the monsoon rolls across the continent from the eastern shores, and will now remain the preserve of nature and its human protectors alone for the next four months.
“Mum Jaya remained in her favourite haunt, the meadows of Rajbehra and the rocky slopes of the Badhaini hills. She is now separated from her first litter of four cubs, as they have grown up and gained independence.
“Johnno, her only son, is the only hanger-on, as if – like his human counterparts – he keeps coming back to Mum to be fed and get his laundry done.
“Young males in a world of ferocious competitors and closely-guarded territories make it a dangerous place for Johnno, if not quite so for his sisters Murphy, Trya and Crumbie who are more likely to be gathered up by dominant male tiger rather than chased and banished from their lands.
“Johnno knows his time with his mum is now very short and it will be years before he can challenge a dominant male for his own kingdom and the right to start his own family. This means being banished from the land of his birth to some less well-kept forest bordering the park, or a hair-raising journey to a patch of forest in which he can live and grow strong for the challenges of adulthood.”
JTC members receive regular updates from Tiger Nation through their Splat email newsletter. You can learn more about the family by clicking here or sign up to our Junior Tigers Club here.
