The Oakland Zoo has made Sitara, a 13-year-old female tiger with glossy golden fur and black stripes, its permanent resident after rescuing her from a private Butte County facility where five tigers were said to have spent years in neglectful confinement. She is now in a new habitat and learning how to move through grass, vegetation, a pool or waterfall and a platform.
The rescue matters today because Sitara is not just recovering from the move; she is being readied for a life the zoo says will now be hers for good. The Oakland Zoo worked with wildlife officials and PETA to bring in all five tigers from the Kirshner facility, then medically evaluated, treated and stabilized them. Sitara is also receiving proper nutrition, while the zoo has begun monitoring her behavioral and mental health challenges.
That wider rescue left four other tigers with different futures. A 14-year-old female white tiger with a visual impairment caused by inbreeding was relocated to the Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas. Two males, an 11-year-old white-and-Bengal mix and a 13-year-old male Siberian mix, were moved in state to PAWS. A 16-year-old female tiger with end-stage arthritis and spinal disease did not recover after intensive care at the zoo's veterinary hospital, and the care team determined euthanasia was the most humane option.
The Oakland Zoo said Sitara's arrival was a decade in the making, and the timing also fit because the zoo had room after the deaths earlier this year of its rescue tigers Mia and Lola. Zoo spokesperson Isabella Linares said Sitara will be viewable to visitors once she adjusts to her new habitat. For now, the most important part of the story is the simplest one: a tiger once trapped in neglect now has space, care and a permanent home.
