The center and the nearby Harbin Siberian Tiger Park are home to 160 Siberian tigers and expect another 60 cubs to be born this year. However, staff may try to curb births due to the financial problems, Xinhua quoted director Wang Ligang as saying. Numbers of Siberian tigers have been devastated over recent decades by poaching and destruction of forest habitat in northeastern China and the Russian Far East.
Government funding fails to make up the difference.
Center staff hope to earn additional money by leasing tigers to zoos, raising donations from the public and building new attractions that present the tigers without cages, the report said. Staff at the center were unreachable for comment.