28 June 2004 00:00 Central Networks helps to complete a Tiger’s tale

Four rare white tigers are now living in the lap of luxury in a new enclosure at West Midlands Safari Park thanks to Central Networks.

Harlem and Queens and Tikfa and Tahaas, the white tigers living at the safari park in Bewdley, needed a bigger pad, but there were two things standing in their way.

In the middle of the tigers’ planned new enclosure there were two Central Networks wooden electricity poles. If the poles stayed where they were, there would be no new home for the tigers.

Jim Lightfoot, Director of Customer and Network Operations at Central Networks, said: “Our customers are usually of the two-legged variety but we were happy to see what we could do for the tigers.

“And, as the tigers were so unusual and the request was for a new home, we decided that we could re-route the electricity line and move the poles free of charge.
mf
“I think it’s fair to say that, had the tigers moved home without the poles being moved, none of our linesmen would have fancied climbing into the enclosure and dodging a 450lb tiger in order to fix a fault.”

Bob Lawrence, Head Warden at the Safari Park, said: “I’d like to thank Central Networks for carrying out this work. These magnificent creatures are an endangered species and we needed to build a bigger enclosure with improved features to continue our captive breeding programme.

“The new enclosure has indoor and outdoor swimming pools, caves to sleep in and grass to prowl through. We are also planning to install closed circuit TV cameras to monitor any future births.”

Less than 100 captive white tigers are believed to exist in the world. The last white tiger to be seen in the wild was in India in 1951. This animal was captured and all captive white tigers are descended from that tiger.

ENDS

Notes to editors:
Central Networks is the new name for Midlands Electricity and East Midlands Electricity bringing power to 4.8 million customers across the East and West Midlands through 133,000km of underground and overhead cables and via almost 97,000 substations.
Central Networks covers an area from the Peak District to parts of Bristol and from the Welsh Borders to the Lincolnshire Coast.

For more information and photographs contact:
Rebecca Jackson on 024 7642 4583