Tiger Cub Escapes Ukraine’s Mykolaiv Zoo and Is Safely Recaptured After Staff Search the Surrounding Area

October 27, 2026
2 mins read
Young tiger cub lying on grass with its mouth open.
A young tiger cub lies on grass. (Representative image) [Photo source: Wikimedia Commons / license as provided in curation file]

A four-and-a-half-month-old Amur tiger cub that escaped from her quarantine enclosure at Mykolaiv Zoo in southern Ukraine on Saturday night was safely recovered at exactly 10:00 PM on Sunday, October 25, after a 14-hour search inside the zoo grounds.

Zoo Director Volodymyr Topchiy confirmed the cub—a female of the endangered Panthera tigris altaica subspecies—squeezed through a narrow gap between metal bars near the ceiling of her quarantine enclosure overnight on October 24–25. Dog handlers spent most of Sunday searching the grounds without locating her. A volunteer using a thermal imager spotted the cub’s heat signature on Sunday evening. Zoo staff sedated and recovered her without injury.

Mykolaiv residents faced no public safety risk at any point. The cub, roughly the size of a large dog at her current age, never left the zoo perimeter. As of Monday she is eating normally and playing with her sibling. Repairs to the ceiling-level gap in the enclosure are underway. Topchiy stated the zoo intends to reinforce all ceiling-level fixtures in its quarantine facilities.

Related coverage: Amur tiger cubs born at Longleat Safari Park.

Related coverage: Amur tigers return to Kazakhstan.

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