Rishi & Mahesha

Rishi and Mahesha…

• Were born on September 30th, 2016, and were part of a litter of five.

• A zoo in North Carolina graciously donated the cubs to the Cohanzick Zoo in January of 2017.

• The brothers were first described as, “Gorgeous and ornery,” by Bonnie Facemyer, who was the president of the Cohanzick Zoological Society at the time the cubs arrived.

• The tigers were a much-welcomed sight considering nearly two years before the zoo had lost the last of the two white tigers who had roamed the enclosure for many years.

• In memory of those two tigers, Ganesha and Shiva, the zoo chose names for the cubs to honor them. Former zoo coordinator Kelly Shaw explained that “Mahesha means ‘great lord’, and is another way to say Shiva,”, and Rishi means “poet” in Hindu, which is a connection to Ganesha, the name of the Hindu god known as the patron of arts, letters, and writing.

• Weighing only around 20 pounds when they arrived, the tigers now weigh nearly 500 pounds each.

• Bengal tigers (also known as Indian tigers) are considered an endangered species, with numbers rapidly declining. As of October 2022 it was estimated that there were only about 3,500 Bengals left in the wild.

• Despite this, they are still considered the most common tiger, and make up about half of the current tiger population.

• This species of tiger is found primarily in the forests and wetlands of India and surrounding areas, including Bangladesh, Nepal, and Bhutan.

• The Bengal is considered the second largest tiger, rivaled only by the Siberian tiger.

• Males can grow up to about 10.5 feet long, and weigh nearly 650 pounds, whereas females can grow to about 9 feet long, and 400 pounds.

• Poaching and habitat destruction are the biggest threats to the population remaining in the wild.