KNOWSLEY Safari’s Amur Tiger Trail has now opened and sisters Sinda and Bira have been settling into their new 10,000 m2 home.

The pair of big cats have been exploring their new habitat, paying special attention to the full-length glass panes that allow visitors unique, up close viewing opportunities.

Eveline De Wolf, head of living collection at Knowsley Safari, said: "We’ve been developing our new tiger habitat for more than a year and can’t wait for guests to see it.

"It has been designed especially for Sinda and Bira, our Amur tigers, to provide an enriching home with a flowing stream, large natural ponds and mature trees.”

Guests visiting throughout the summer will be able to learn all about the Amur tiger, see their Russian-themed habitat and find out about the threats to their survival and conservation.

Edward Perry, managing director at Knowsley Safari, said: “This is the first major habitat development we’ve undertaken in recent years and it sets the standard of things to come at Knowsley Safari.

"As always, our starting point was to create an enriching and natural landscape for our Amur tiger sisters, Sinda and Bira to explore and enjoy.

“As well as creating a great environment for our sisters to thrive, we also wanted to bring our visitors a real taste of what makes the Amur Tiger different to other subspecies and educate them on the challenges they face in the wild - all through play and fun.

"We want this to be an active experience for our guests and so we’ve created lots of different activities around the habitat for them to explore and learn from.”

Amur tigers are an endangered species with numbers thought to be only around 500 in the wild.

Of the nine subspecies of tiger, three are already extinct and the Amur tiger is the largest living species remaining.

The new facility at Knowsley Safari has been designed to enable breeding and contribute to the global breeding programme for the species.