The Little Rock Zoo’s 4-month-old Malayan tiger cubs pounced, chased and climbed all over their habitat at their public debut Saturday morning.

“They remind me of kittens at play,” said Jay Smith of Conway, who was at the zoo Saturday with his 15-monthold daughter and his mother, Brenda Powell.

The four cubs - named Liem, Eko, Olan and Asmara - were born at the zoo Nov. 12 to mother Suhana. Their father is Liku.

“I think they’re absolutely beautiful,” Powell said.

Smith and Powell had planned to take toddler Riverlyn to the Memphis Zoo this weekend to feed the giraffes but changed their minds when they heard about the cubs’ premiere in Little Rock.

“You really can’t beat baby tigers,” Smith said.

Malayan tigers are critically endangered, zoo spokesman Susan Altrui said. Fewer than 500 are left in the wild.

Counting the four Little Rock cubs, there are now 56 Malayan tigers in zoos accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, a worldwide organization.

As part of the association’s Species Survival Plan, the Little Rock Zoo matched - through a database gauging compatibility of personality and physical characteristics - Liku, 9, with the Baton Rouge Zoo’s 5-year-old Suhana. The Little Rock Zoo then swapped one of its male tigers for Suhana.

Zookeepers picked two of the cubs’ names - Olan and Asmara - then took the public’s suggestion for the names Liem and Eko.

Since their birth, the cubs had stayed in the indoor tiger habitat with their mother. They are now weaned and ready to show off.

The zoo plans to keep the cubs for three or four years, adjusting the tigers’ habitat as they grow, Altrui said.

The zoo celebrated the cubs’ public coming out Saturday with a Tiger Cub PAWty that included cake.

Zoo patrons - mostly couples and families pushing children in strollers or holding them by their shoulders - crowded along the exhibit’s three fences, snapping photographs with cellphones and pricey Nikons.

John Virden visited the zoo Saturday with his wife, Anne, and their 4-year-old daughter, Barrett. They are at the zoo almost every weekend in-season, but John Virden said the cubs made Saturday’s trip even more exciting.

“We’re happy to see them,” he said.

Arkansas, Pages 13 on 03/16/2014