Three tiger subspecies are already extinct, and the remainder are at great risk of extinction due to habitat loss and hunting.
 
Sumatran Tigers are the most endangered of all, and Melbourne Zoo is part of an important international zoo network aiming to maintain a sustainable population of this critically endangered species. 
 
The breeding pair of Ramalon and Binjai was recommended as part of a Cooperative Conservation Program, which organised the transfer of Binjai from her birthplace at Rotterdam Zoo in the Netherlands to Melbourne Zoo in 2004, when she was two years old.
 
Ramalon was born at Taronga Zoo in 1995, and came to Melbourne Zoo in 1999.  His mother was one of two tigers born at Melbourne Zoo in 1990 to longtime residents Frank and Poetry, and went to Taronga Zoo as part of the breeding program.
 
Ramalon and Binjai have produced one litter, in October 2006.  Their offspring Isha and Satu are still at Melbourne Zoo but are expected to be transferred within the next year to other zoos in the region as part of the breeding program.

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