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Watch these tigers play tug-o-war with their keepers

The tigers at Columbus Zoo have a raft of enrichment activities to try.

(Columbus Zoo and Aquarium/Facebook) Expand

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(Columbus Zoo and Aquarium/Facebook)

(Columbus Zoo and Aquarium/Facebook)

(Columbus Zoo and Aquarium/Facebook)

If you’re a Siberian tiger that likes to play tug-o-war, then life’s pretty good at Columbus Zoo.

Keepers at the zoo and aquarium in Ohio offered their big cats a game of the classic sport, from behind the safety of a locked gate of course.

Despite their seemingly considerable size, the tigers seen in the video are cubs, of three born at the zoo in July 2017.

The cubs are the offspring of mother Mara, who was born at Pittsburgh Zoo in 2006, and father Jupiter who was moved to Columbus in March 2015 from the Czech Republic, part of a programme to increase the genetic health and diversity of tigers in human care.

The three cubs are called Mabelle, George and Tim, and they also enjoy splashes in an indoor pool as part of their enrichment at the zoo.

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Siberian tigers are also known as Amur tigers and are natives to Asia, once found across the Russian Far East, northern China and Korean peninsula.

According to the World Wildlife Federation however, hunting has caused the critically endangered species’ numbers to dwindle to just 540, though this is risen from around 40 individuals in the 1940s.

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