This archive report was first published on 1 December 2019.
On December 1, 2019, a group of rescued tigers departed from a Polish zoo, bound for the Primadomus Wildlife Refuge in Villena, Spain.
According to Malgorzata Chodyla, the zoo's spokeswoman, the tigers were given sedatives to ensure a smooth relocation, but two of them initially refused to sleep.
'When the whole team has to enter the enclosure to carry out the tiger and it suddenly lifts its head up, those are some tense moments. But everything happened safely,' Chodyla told AFP.
The tigers were previously rescued from a truck in Poland in October, where they were found emaciated and dehydrated. Polish authorities charged several individuals with animal abuse in connection with the incident.
There are only around 3,200 to 3,900 tigers remaining in the wild worldwide, with an additional 7,000 held in captivity, mainly in Asia.
