LA Zoo To Welcome Endangered Tiger

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — The Los Angeles Zoo Friday will debut its newest attraction — a male tiger named Castro.

The endangered Sumatran tiger is almost 2 years old and is already 250 pounds.

Castro, or "C.J." for short, comes from the Sacramento Zoo.

"C.J. is an incredibly well-natured and energetic tiger," Stephanie Zielinski, Animal Keeper for the Los Angeles Zoo, said. "We are excited to have a potential breeding male here at the Zoo because the Sumatran tiger is one of the most endangered subspecies of tiger in the world. There are less than 400 left in the wild."

The Sumatran tiger is the smallest of the six remaining subspecies of tiger, and they are found only on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

They are listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) with agricultural habitat destruction, poaching and killing of tigers that comes into contact with villagers as the biggest threats to their survival.