Zoya Is Cleveland's Tiger Queen

Step aside all supposed tiger kings. There’s a new queen at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. Zoya, a five-year-old female Amur tiger, came to the zoo late last year. With the 300-pound big cat’s arrival from the Odense Zoo in Denmark, she joins male Amur tigers Hector, who is also five, and 17-year-old Kleschka in the Metroparks Zoo’s Rosebrough Tiger Passage. “People can see a lot of behaviors and traits in the Amur tigers as they do in their own household pets, obviously on a much larger scale,” says Travis Vineyard, the zoo’s curator of animals. Vineyard says Zoya’s arrival could mean tiger cubs in the zoo’s future as well, noting that she has already adapted well to her new surroundings. “She really liked [Hector] a lot from the first onset,” he says. “We’re very encouraged that they’re going to be a good pair.” clevelandmetroparks.com