Growling “brrrr” rather than “grrrrr”, two Amur tiger cubs had their first taste of snow at the Highland Wildlife Park near Aviemore yesterday.
Although most tigers are associated with tropical forests, this rare breed originates from the far east of Russia, where temperatures often plunge well below zero.
Douglas Richardson, head of living collections at the park, said: “Yesterday and today’s snow is the first that our two Amur tiger cubs have experienced.
“Victor and Murray were born at the park last May to Marty and Dominika. Their mother was also born at the park in 2009.
“At just over six months old, the cubs are fascinated by anything new and the complete change in the appearance of their snow- covered wooded enclosure generated even more play than normal, probably a bit of a relief for the mother as they are keeping themselves entertained and she can get a break.”
Although the lively youngsters seemed to enjoy the snow they were more interested in a new ball they were given to play with and Murray showed off ball skills which would have impressed Scots tennis star Andy Murray, after whom he is named.
Meanwhile, the chances of the rest of us having a white Christmas seemed to be melting away last night. Unless on top of a mountain, you are unlikely to see snow on the big day.
Dr Eddie Graham, a meteorologist at the University of the Highlands and Islands, said, while there might be colder weather on Christmas Day, most of the snow would be on high ground. He also revealed snow cover has decreased gradually across the northern hemisphere over the past four decades.
He said: “This overall decrease in snow cover, however, has not been replicated during the month of December – an anomaly that bucks the trend of decreasing snow cover in most other months.
“Indeed, it appears that December has even become slightly more snowy over the past 40 years across Scotland and Europe as a whole – we only need to recall the very snowy Decembers of 2009 and 2010 to confirm this.”
Mr Graham said: “The current meteorological prognosis is for a continuation of the very wet and stormy weather for several more days, but with an increasing chance of colder weather by Christmas Day. Most of any snow will be on high ground, however, away from the main population centres.”
Mr Graham added that global warming was being blamed for the decreasing snow cover worldwide, adding that in Scotland the high variability in the amount of snow meant that it was hard to compare one year with the next.