Remember when, Arkansas? Little Rock Zoo fed jack-o'-lanterns to a different type of tiger in 1990s

Dmitri, one of the Little Rock Zoo's two Siberian tigers, plays with a pumpkin Oct. 22, 1999. Zookeepers gave Dmitri and his brother, Serge, decorated pumpkins stuffed with meat as Halloween treats to kick off Boo at the Zoo. Until Oct. 31, the zoo will be open evenings for trick or treaters to enjoy  live entertainment, a haunted cat house, carnival rides, food and lighted Halloween displays. A costume contest will be held nightly at 8 p.m.
Dmitri, one of the Little Rock Zoo's two Siberian tigers, plays with a pumpkin Oct. 22, 1999. Zookeepers gave Dmitri and his brother, Serge, decorated pumpkins stuffed with meat as Halloween treats to kick off Boo at the Zoo. Until Oct. 31, the zoo will be open evenings for trick or treaters to enjoy live entertainment, a haunted cat house, carnival rides, food and lighted Halloween displays. A costume contest will be held nightly at 8 p.m.

Dmitri the tiger ate a pumpkin Oct. 22, 1999, in a promotion for the Little Rock Zoo's seventh annual Boo at the Zoo.

The 5-year-old beast eviscerated the meat-stuffed gourd while an appropriately decorated jack-o'-lantern cowered nearby. Dmitri's brother, Serge, was also somewhere nearby.

Tigers eating pumpkins has been an annual tradition at the zoo.

Serge and Dmitri were 2 years old when the Denver Zoo transferred them to Little Rock in 1996. The largest tiger subspecies, Siberian adult males can grow as long as a station wagon. These Siberians were a sensation.

But today, most zoos call them Amur tigers. Amur refers to the species' origin in the often snowy Amur River Valley, which runs through icy mountains in the Russian Far East and China.

Little Rock's big cats seemed OK with the heat, zookeepers said, but the species is critically endangered. The American Zoo and Aquarium Association's species survival plan recommended in 2006 that zoos in sweaty places like Arkansas swap their Amur tigers for heat-tolerant tigers owned by other zoos in cooler places.

Serge was sent to the Minnesota Zoo where he spent the rest of his life. The Philadelphia Zoo took Dmitri, and he sired three cubs with Kira, an Amur female from Germany.

In 2008, according to the 2013 North American Regional Amur Tiger Studbook (see arkansasonline.com/1018cat), Dmitri's next breeding job took him to Indianapolis. And then in 2009 he was transferred to the Riverbanks Zoo & Garden in Columbia, S.C. That zoo's magazine in 2009 said he liked to hang out in the exhibit pool.

Dmitri and Serge died in 2012. Eighteen years is a long life for tigers, captive or wild.

They were the last Siberian tigers at Little Rock. To replace them in 2006, a Nebraska zoo sent Little Rock two male Malayan tigers. Intan and Liku took over Boo at the Zoo publicity chores, happily destroying pumpkins.

In 2012, Intan was sent to the Baton Rouge Zoo to mate with a female named Nazira (and he made headlines there when he needed a root canal).

Baton Rouge sent Nazira's sister, Suhanna, to Little Rock. Over the course of four days she and Liku mated 59 times; their four cubs were born in November 2013. In 2015, Suhanna was sent to the Bronx Zoo in New York and cubs Liem, Olan and Eko went to Seattle. Little Rock kept Asmara and her sire, Liku.

Liku lived to be 17. Suffering from advanced kidney disease, he was euthanized Oct. 7.

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