Siberian Tiger Entertains Herself by Building a Snowman (Video)

A tiger at a Russian zoo reveals an intelligent skill only previously seen in bored human children on a snow day: the ability to build a snowman.
Epoch Video
1/28/2015
Updated:
1/31/2015

A tiger at a Russian zoo reveals an intelligent skill only previously ever seen in bored human children on a snow day: the ability to build a snowman.

Zookeepers at the Kaliningrad Zoo say they first thought someone was throwing giant snowballs into the enclosure of Tanya, its endangered Siberian tiger.

But the mystery was finally solved when video cameras captured the source of the snowballs — the female big cat was building them herself. Zoologists say Tanya prefers to start the snow mounds after dark when she isn’t being watched, and then pushes the snow around until the snowball is large enough to play with.

So far it looks like she’s made two giant snow balls and rolled them together, but it’s a long winter, Tanya has time to make plenty more. Psst, hey Tanya: you want to start figuring out how to stack them. And don’t stop at a snowman, build yourself a ladder.