The lonely tiger of London Zoo and a £5m problem

Romance does not come cheap at London Zoo. At a cost of £5 million, the zoo's tigers are to get a new home in the hope it might finally encourage them to breed.

A public appeal is being launched to raise the funds to replace the current tiger paddock. It is too small, outdated and apparently not conducive to amorous behaviour.

The need for a more romantic lair became apparent when Sumatran tigress Sarah - brought in specially from Dudley Zoo last summer - failed to spark with the zoo's resident 11-year-old male Lumpur. Rather than hitting it off, Lumpur hit out and scratched Sarah, causing a small wound to one of her hind legs.

Now the zoo in Regent's Park wants to build a new paddock that will allow the tigers a break from each other.

Last year, it opened a £5.3 million Gorilla Kingdom exhibit and it proposes to do the same for the rare tigers and the lions in the enclosure next door. "It is quite an outdated facility and we want to create for lions and tigers what we have for gorillas," said David Field, director of the Zoological Society of London, which runs London Zoo.

"One of the things the tigers want is privacy. Sometimes they want to be together and sometimes they want to be apart. Having a multi-paddock system allows the tigers to be apart at some times and together at others."

Westminster Council licensing inspectors concluded that the enclosure, first opened in 1976, was too cramped and that a new home should be in place within two years. "The tiger paddock needs to be enlarged and provide separation for the tigers," the inspectors wrote.

With just 400 Sumatran tigers in the wild, the zoo had hoped to play a role in preventing the species becoming extinct. In June last year, 14-year-old Sarah arrived from Dudley Zoo, where she had successfully bred, in the hope she could repeat the trick with Lumpur. In exchange, tigress Raika went to Dudley, having failed to breed with Lumpur despite the zoo's best efforts.

Barnardo Luque, a City of London vet, who formed part of the Westminster Council inspection team, noticed the scratch on Sarah's leg. He said: "The tigress did appear to have some injuries. It was a situation that you might expect to see in large felines but if you see an injury you have to do something." Sarah will now return to Dudley while Raika, eight, will come home in the next few weeks. In the meantime, Sarah is on her own in an enclosure next to the Asian lions Abby and Lucifer.