Close to Tigers at Tiger Kingdom Chiang Mai

Allow yourself an “up-close and personal” experience with the tiger: play, stoke and take photos in the actual enclosures! Tiger Kingdom Chiang Mai is part of a breeding program of tiger in Chiang Mai and, if you decide to go behind the fences, you will be able to take pictures with new born, baby and adult tigers.

The Tiger Kingdom Chiang Mai is one of only two such ventures in the whole of Thailand that allows the visitor an “up close & personal” experience with the tigers, allowing them to play, stroke & take photos in the tigers ACTUAL ENCLOSURE !!.

Tiger Kingdom Chiang Mai is part of a breeding program of tigers in Chiang Mai. Safe and controlled interaction with animals in the centre is an effective educational tool to encourage public awareness and understand of wildlife. The animals themselves have been socialized since birth and enjoy all the personal attention!

This is not a Zoo but a combination of Tiger Park and Restaurant. The Tiger Kingdom is the Ultimate for big cat lovers. you will see tigers, they are not aggressive as you think. Tiger Kingdom Chiang Mai is a fairly new attraction in the area of Mae Rim. Tiger Kingdom Chiang Mai is a park and restaurant where you can play and touch with tigers and also have a good lunch here. At the Tiger Kingdom Chiang Mai, You can choose to play and touch puppy tigers, small tigers and big tigers. There is friendly staff helping you with your choice. When you arrive over there, you can choose what tiger you want to see and touch (small, baby, big). Once you’re in the park and you get to a cage, there’s an instructor that guides you in and let you get close to the different tigers.

The Park, the costs of admission/play with our tigers in enclosures ,you can choose.

All Prices included : Local VAT.7% , Service Charge & Insurance Premium.

The suitable time for play with the Tigers should be around 10.00 AM. until 06.00 PM.

Chiang Mai Tiger Kingdom is located in tourist area in Mae Rim District, it can be reached by hiring a car with driver, Songtaew, Tuk Tuk or arranging Private tour from Chiang Mai

TIGER KINGDOM FAQ

The first Tiger Kingdom branch was founded in Ubonrachatani in the year 2000 was named Ubon Zoo. Nowadays, number of tigers will continue as the breeding program continues to become more successful. Then on the 24th March 2008 Tiger Kingdom was founded in Chiangmai as a 2nd branch of Ubon Zoo in order to earn more income for the extra space and enclosures that the tigers needed to be comfortable.

ARE ANY OF THE TIGER! HERE DRUGGED! WHY ARE THE TIGERS SO TAME !

Tigers are mainly active at night and less active during the mid-day heat. However, this pattern may vary by season and prey activity. The tigers at Tiger Kingdom are used to people and see us as one of their family. In the wild the tigers spend most of the day sleeping, they do the same here. None of the tigers at Tiger Kingdom are drugged.

WHY DON’T THE TIGERS WAKE UP WHEN YOU ARE STROKING THEM SO ROUGHLY !

Every day they get plenty of pats, hugs and tummy rubs. So much so that they have almost become desensitized by it, it’s normal to them when someone new starts rubbing or heavily patting them. The other reason that customers seldom visit the park in the early morning or late evening when the tigers actually want to be awake. Large crowds of people swarm to the park in the blistering heat of the day and expect to see a largely nocturnal animal running jumping and looking into the cameras for the perfect picture. It’s just not natural for the tiger to have so much activity at the peak times of the human day!

WHY DO YOU USE STICKS WITH THE TIGERS!

Sticks are held by trainers at all times for safety. From a very early age the cubs are taught that biting and clawing are not permitted. This has to be instilled in them every day for the rest of their lives. It is the only way it can make it possible for a human to be in the same enclosure as a man eating animal.

The use of electric shock, whips, chains, declawing, drugging and food deprivation reward are also methods that could be used on a tiger but Tiger Kingdom believes the method of “nose tapping” is the only method that reduces the harm to the tigers, and remains a successful way of preventing human and tiger injury.

If a tiger injures a human it usually calls for the animal to be put down. Without any kind of discipline it is just as much a danger to the tiger life as it is to the customer. A human may survive a tiger bite but the tiger most certainly wouldn’t! The sticks are not sharp and do not cause cuts.

As the tigers get older they learn that the stick is a warning. It is used when face to face eye contact or threatening behavior is shown by the tiger, but as they mostly sleep during the busiest parts of the day a trainer will usually bang it on the fence or something nearby to let the tiger know they are approaching and that aggressive behavior will be met with a hard knock to the nose. This technique is also used in training aggressive dog and other biting animals except that for this animal using a finger or hand is the preferred method. Not something I would suggest with tiger with its size and power!

Some institutions are strictly against training cats for any reason. But even they have their cats trained to a certain extent. When the cats’ food is brought to the den, they come to eat. They are then locked in their den while the keepers clean the enclosures. This is a perfect example of the reward training method.

If cats are to be handled, they must be trained not to play with people the same as they play with each other. If a cat struck or bit us the same as they would another cat in play, we would not last very long. They must be taught that our skin is like tissue paper compared to theirs.

The tigers at Tiger Kingdom are born into human care and we always stay near by so that they are use to people. They do not want to hunt you or to hurt you. The tigers are handled, stroked and patted every day and so that even the biggest of hands or the roughest of pats does not usually bother them. What can make them react is if you touch them so lightly you feel like a fly. Very gentle touching can feel ticklish and irritating to a sleeping tiger and so it’s best to stroke firmly to avoid being treated like a fly of mosquito.

The baby tigers are often playful and may want to play with you. They do play rough though and so could bite when they are playing.

WHAT HAPPEN TO THE ADULT TIGERS WHEN THEY LEAVE TIGER KINGDOM

Tiger Kingdom is a partner of Ubon zoo and the animals that are bred here sometimes go there or to others zoos. For the most part though, a majority will stay here for life. Tiger kingdom was founded primarily for the preservation of the endangered Indo-Chineses species of tiger and to earn more income for their upkeep in both tiger Kingdom and Ubon Zoo.

Why do the trainers / photographers wake the tigers uo from their sleep to have pictures taken?

Because without customers the tigers would starve.

What the customer wants they usually get! It’s the same story in every business in every country! If all the customers wanted to do was to stand/sit next to a tiger while it was sleeping peacefully then it would make for a less tired tiger and probably a happier keeper too, but for the most part customers will not settle for just a touch. Provided it is safe to do so the trainers will try and position the tiger so that the face can be seen and the customer can sit comfortably in shot.

Customers are important to the tiger’s lives. No government funding is provided and they rely on the income from the encounters to feed and pay for vets bills ect. Customers want to show their friends and family’s wonderful pictures of them enjoying the intimacy of a one by one with a powerful and majestic animal. It is determined by the majority that dictates the need for the tigers to be woken so many times when they are trying to sleep. If you are happy to be passive and do not want these types of photos then please say so.

Visit Tiger Kingdom for an incredible opportunity to view and enjoy wild animals. 

Come for a unique dining experience, watching Tigers while enjoying Thai and international cuisine at great prices.

Note : Wheelchair user is accessible

Our services :

• Private tour to Tiger Kingdom
• Package tour to Tiger Kingdom (Private group)

Tiger Kingdom Chiang Mai Map