Baby tiger charms audience at WonderLab

About 20 young children gathered eagerly Saturday afternoon to take advantage of their last opportunity to see Max, a 5-month-old baby tiger at WonderLab, a local health, science and technology museum. Since they were urged to stay behind the blue line to prevent Max from becoming scared, the children and their parents sat down and watched the tiger cub in fascination.\nAfter a long day of being in his cage at WonderLab, Max was sleeping when the presentation first began. Jeann Herrberg, the assistant director of the Exotic Feline Rescue Center in Center Point, Ind., rubbed Max's belly to wake him up. \nThe Rescue Center brought Max in from Shelbyville when he was five weeks old. At that time, he was smaller than the stuffed tiger that was in his cage at the show. When baby tigers are born, they weigh about two pounds, Herrberg said.\nCurrently, Max weighs about 85 pounds, and will weigh about 200 pounds when he is a year old. \n"He will probably weigh 500 pounds when he is fully grown, at 3 years old," Herrberg said.\nWhen Max was a baby, he had to be bottle-fed every three hours. Baby tigers are weighed twice a day. \n"If they don't gain an ounce every 12 hours, we know they are sick," Herrberg said.\nWhile Herrberg attempted to feed Max with a bottle, he began to play with her. While putting his mouth on her shirt, a behavior Herrberg called "mouthing", he tore a large rip in the back of her shirt.\nHerrberg assured the audience that Max was just being friendly. \n"They can hurt you or kill you being friendly," she said. "They don't have to be vicious. That's why they don't make good pets."\nThe center is currently home to 200 cats, Herrberg said. There are large enclosures at the rescue center for the tigers to live. They have underground dens, boxes, climbing towers and a large supply of water for the tigers and other cats, she said. There are also three ponds for the tigers to play in. Tigers get in the water even in the winter, as long as they can break the ice. \n"Tigers live alone in the wild but in captivity, they love to have friends," she said.\nMax is a particularly sweet tiger, Herrberg said. \n"Most 5-month-old tigers I would not take out (of the rescue center)," she said.\nHerrberg said the center gets cats from all sorts of locations in Indiana. People can legally own cats, but they must have a license, she said.\nAfter the tigers are taken to the rescue center, it is impossible for them to survive if they were to go back out into the wild, Herrberg said. \n"He would have had to be trained by his mother to survive in the wild," Herrberg said.\nAccording to WonderLab's Web site, www.wonderlab.org, there were more than 100,000 wild tigers inhabiting the world. Scientists now estimate that there are fewer than 7,000 tigers living. Herrberg explained to the group there are only five types of tigers left in the world, and are mostly found in Asia. Siberian tigers are the biggest, and Samatra tigers are the smallest. There are also Bengal, Indo-Chinese and South China tigers. Herrberg speculated that Max is probably part-Siberian and part-Bengal.\n"The stripes are different on every tiger that you see," she said. "The mark on their foreheads are the distinguishing spots that makes it obvious to identify the tiger. The stripes remain on the body even if the hair is shaved off."\nMax will be in Bloomington again for another presentation during a chili supper March 26 from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Twin Lakes Lodge on Bloomfield Road. Admission will be $10 for adults and $5 for children under 12. All of the proceeds will benefit the Exotic Feline Rescue Center, which is a non-profit organization.\nFor more information about the Exotic Feline Rescue Center, visit \nwww.exoticfelinerescuecenter.org.