Siberian zoo shares a video of a young tiger using an unusual high-pitched call

A short video shared by Lesnaya Skazka zoo in Barnaul, gateway to the Altai mountains in Siberia shows an eight months old Amur tiger cub ‘singing’ in the most unusual high-pitched voice. 

The sound - which is is alike to a bird chirping, a cry and a monkey giggle at the same time - is the cub’s favourite way to attract mother’s attention, the zoo said in the comments to the recording. 

‘The cub is feeling very well indeed, his throat is not hurting. This is the call he used since very early after birth to distract his mother from all other cubs, and grab her attention’, one of the staff members explained. 

They confirmed the recording was genuine, and explained that the sound was so unusual because tigers’ vocal cords 'were not designed for such high-pitched notes.’

The Amur tiger cub was born at the beginning of June 2020 as part of a large litter of four to parents Sherkhan and Bagheera. 

Pictures and video: Oksana Vasilyeva/Barnaul Zoo

The Amur tiger is the world’s largest cat, gradually recovering from the verge of extinction.

Less than 600 adult animals - 95% of the world population - live in the Primorsky, Khabarovsk, Amur and Jewish Autonomous regions in Russian Far East.