Polish zoo celebrates the birth of 4 Sumatran tigers, a critically endangered species

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A Polish zoo is celebrating the arrival of four Sumatran tiger cubs, announcing their birth Friday after keeping it a closely-guarded secret for weeks due to fears they may not survive.

Officials at the Wrocław Zoo in the southwestern Polish city of Wroclaw said the tigers — a critically endangered species whose numbers have dwindled to around 400 in the wild — were born on July 22. But the zoo chose not to go public with the news until they could grow a bit, gain some strength and be vaccinated, zoo spokesperson Weronika Łysek said.

Each cub is now about double the size of a domestic cat, at over 8 kilograms (about 18 pounds) each.

“The joy is even greater that all four tigers are developing healthily, are active, eager to eat and play with each other and with their parents,” said Sergiusz Kmiecik, acting president of the zoo, which has been breeding Sumatran tigers since the 1960s.

The four cubs are the offspring of mother Nuri and father Tengah, who four years earlier produced a female, Surya. She currently lives in a zoo in Cottbus, Germany.

The zoo proudly hailed the births as “a breeding success on a global scale.”

Paweł Sroka, the head of the zoo’s department of predatory mammals, noted that Tengah had stayed with the cubs from the beginning, which is rare for tigers.

“He was calm, gentle, and even helped Nuri with care, learning how to ‘handle’ the cubs,” he said.

The zoo is also celebrating the fact that the litter included three males and one female. Females predominate in European zoos, so the birth of three males can help balance their population in zoos.

It is not yet clear where the four cubs will end up going, and they still have growing to do before that is decided, Łysek said. They also haven't been named yet, and the zoo is considering letting the zoo's visitors and fans take part in their naming.

Sumatran tigers — the most critically endangered tiger subspecies — are under increasing pressure due to poaching and a shrinking jungle habitat. There are only about 400 of them left in the wild, according to the Wrocław Zoo, which also has a foundation that works to support their protection.

In this photo released by ZOO Wroclaw, One of four Sumatran tiger cubs is seen at the Wroclaw zoo, in Wrocław, Poland, Thursday Oct. 17, 2024. (ZOO Wrocław via AP)

In this photo released by ZOO Wroclaw, Four Sumatran tiger cubs are seen at the Wroclaw zoo, which is celebrating the birth of the critically endangered predators, in Wrocław, Poland, Thursday Oct. 17, 2024. (ZOO Wrocław via AP)

In this photo released by ZOO Wroclaw, Four Sumatran tiger cubs are seen at the Wroclaw zoo, which is celebrating the birth of the critically endangered predators, in Wrocław, Poland, Thursday Oct. 17, 2024. (ZOO Wrocław via AP)

In this photo released by ZOO Wroclaw, Tigress Nuri with one of the four tiger cubs at the Wroclaw zoo, in Wrocław, Poland, Thursday Oct. 17, 2024. (ZOO Wrocław via AP)

In this photo released by ZOO Wroclaw, Four Sumatran tiger cubs are seen at the Wroclaw zoo, which is celebrating the birth of the critically endangered predators, in Wrocław, Poland, Thursday Oct. 17, 2024. (ZOO Wrocław via AP)

In this photo released by ZOO Wroclaw, Four Sumatran tiger cubs are seen at the Wroclaw zoo, which is celebrating the birth of the critically endangered predators, in Wrocław, Poland, Thursday Oct. 17, 2024. (ZOO Wrocław via AP)

In this photo released by ZOO Wroclaw, Four Sumatran tiger cubs are seen at the Wroclaw zoo, which is celebrating the birth of the critically endangered predators, in Wrocław, Poland, Thursday Oct. 17, 2024. (ZOO Wrocław via AP)

LONDON (AP) — With banners, bullhorns, toy tractors and an angry message, British farmers descended on Parliament on Tuesday to protest a hike in inheritance tax that they say will deal a “hammer blow” to struggling family farms.

U.K. farmers are rarely as militant as their European neighbors, and Britain has not seen large-scale protests like those that have snarled cities in France and other European countries. Now, though, farmers say they will step up their action if the government doesn’t listen.

“Everyone’s mad,” said Olly Harrison, co-organizer of a protest that aims to flood the street outside Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office with farmers. He said many famers “want to take to the streets and block roads and go full French.”

Organizers have urged protesters not to bring farm machinery into central London on Tuesday. Instead, children on toy tractors will lead a march around Parliament Square after a rally addressed by speakers including former “Top Gear” TV host and celebrity farmer Jeremy Clarkson. Another 1,800 farmers held a “mass lobby” of lawmakers nearby organized by the National Farmers’ Union.

“The human impact of this policy is simply not acceptable, it’s wrong," NFU President Tom Bradshaw told farmers gathered for the mass lobby. “It’s kicking the legs out from under British food security."

Volatile weather exacerbated by climate change, global instability and the upheaval caused by Britain’s 2020 departure from the European Union have all added to the burden on U.K. farmers. Many feel the Labour Party government’s tax change, part of an effort to raise billions of pounds to fund public services, is the last straw.

“Four out of the last five years, we’ve lost money,” said Harrison, who grows cereal crops on his family farm near Liverpool in northwest England. “The only thing that’s kept me going is doing it for my kids. And maybe a little bit of appreciation on the land allows you to keep borrowing, to keep going. But now that’s just disappeared overnight.”

The flashpoint is the government’s decision in its budget last month to scrap a tax break dating from the 1990s that exempts agricultural property from inheritance tax. From April 2026, farms worth more than 1 million pounds ($1.3 million) face a 20% tax when the owner dies and they are passed on to the next generation. That is half the 40% inheritance tax rate levied on other land and property in the U.K.

Starmer’s center-left government says the “vast majority” of farms -– about 75% -- will not be affected, and various loopholes mean that a farming couple can pass on an estate worth up to 3 million pounds ($3.9 million) to their children free of tax.

Supporters of the tax say it will recoup money from wealthy people who have bought up agricultural land as an investment, driving up the cost of farmland in the process.

“It’s become the most effective way for the super rich to avoid paying their inheritance tax,” Environment Secretary Steve Reed wrote in the Daily Telegraph, adding that high land prices were “robbing young farmers of the dream of owning their own farm.”

But the famers’ union says more than 60% of working farms could face a tax hit. And while farms may be worth a lot on paper, profits are often small. Government figures show that income for most types of farms fell in the year to the end of February 2024, in some cases by more than 70%. Average farm income ranged from about 17,000 pounds ($21,000) for grazing livestock farms to 143,000 pounds ($180,000) for specialist poultry farms.

The last decade has been turbulent for British farmers. Many farmers backed Brexit as a chance to get out of the EU’s complex and much-criticized Common Agricultural Policy. Since then, the U.K. has brought in changes such as paying farmers to restore nature and promote biodiversity, as well as for producing food.

Some farmers have welcomed those moves, but many feel goodwill was squandered through missteps by successive governments, a failure of subsidies to keep up with inflation, and new trade deals with countries including Australia and New Zealand that have opened the door to cheap imports.

National Farmers’ Union Deputy President David Exwood said the tax hike was “the final straw in a succession of tough choices and difficult situations that farmers have had to deal with.”

The government has “completely blown their trust with the industry,” he said.

The government insists it will not reconsider the inheritance tax, and its political opponents see an opportunity. The main opposition Conservative Party -– which was in government for 14 years until July -- and the hard-right populist party Reform U.K. are both championing the farmers. Some far-right groups also have backed Tuesday’s protest, though the organizers are not affiliated with them.

Harrison says the demonstration is intended as “a show of unity to the government” and an attempt to inform the public “that farmers are food producers, not tax-dodging millionaires.”

“It’s every single sector, whether you’re a landowner or a tenant, whether you’re beef, dairy, milk, cereals, veg, lettuce -- you name it, everyone has had a hammer blow from this," he said. “Every farmer is losing.”

Britain's Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, center, speaks with religious leaders during a breakfast roundtable meeting for faith leaders as part of Inter Faith Week at 10 Downing Street, in London, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (Carl Court/Pool Photo via AP)

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer visits Airbus in Broughton, North Wales, Friday Nov. 15, 2024. (Danny Lawson/Pool via AP)