World's most endangered tigers born in Greece as zoos build a safety net

SPATA, Greece (AP) — The world’s most endangered tigers have started a family in Greece, offering hope for a predator that is rapidly vanishing from the wild.

Three 2-month-old Sumatran tiger cubs received identification microchips and their first vaccinations Tuesday at a zoo near Athens, as part of a global effort to build a backup population.

The Sumatran tiger, classified as critically endangered by the United Nations and conservation groups, is found only on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, which is slightly larger than Sweden. As few as 400 are believed to remain in the wild, mainly because of aggressive forest clearing.

“The Sumatran tiger is one of the most threatened tiger species in the world, and among felines in general,” said Theodoros Babilis, head keeper of cats and monkeys at Attica Zoological Park.

Zoos in Europe and elsewhere are maintaining a safety population, he said, “so that in the future there can be potential reintroductions of this species into the wild.”

The Sumatran tiger is the smallest tiger species in the world, but males can still grow up to 2.55 meters (8.4 feet) long and weigh as much as 140 kilograms (309 pounds).

Skilled swimmers and climbers, they use their dark stripes — unique to each animal, like a fingerprint — to hide in the dense forest as they hunt deer, wild pigs and smaller mammals.

Even at 2 months old, Babilis said, the cubs have already developed sharp claws and teeth that make handling them a challenge.

The cubs were born in early July to Toba, their mother, and Argos, their father, who has since died of cancer. The surviving cubs are expected to take names from characters in Homer’s “The Odyssey,” zoo staff said.

Two males and one female, the cubs were restless during Tuesday’s vaccination. Veterinary staff needed help to complete the procedure, ferrying the animals back and forth in carriers on electric buggies.

Caring for the animals is demanding work, said Dr. Arsenoi Psaroudaki, a zoo and wildlife veterinarian.

“The tigers don’t like to be handled. They’re very wild,” she said, explaining that staff have to work quickly to limit stress.

The cubs received microchips logged in a shared database, plus a vaccine similar to one commonly given to cats that protects against three diseases.

For Psaroudaki, the work is also rewarding because it offers “some hope for safeguarding these really rare cats.”

She added: “It’s very humbling to be able to work with the rarest tiger species in the world.”

—— Theodora Tongas in Spata, Greece contributed

A two-month-old Sumatran tiger cub is weighed before its first vaccination and microchipping at Attica Zoological Park near Athens, Greece, on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026, part of an effort to build a backup population of the critically endangered species. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

A two-month-old female Sumatran tiger cub observes the Attica Zoological Park near Athens, Greece, on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026, after its first vaccination and microchipping, as part of an effort to build a backup population of the critically endangered species. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

A two-month-old female Sumatran tiger cub growls after its first vaccination and microchipping at Attica Zoological Park near Athens, Greece, on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026, as part of an effort to build a backup population of the critically endangered species. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Veterinarian Arsinoi Psaroudaki, right, gives a two-month-old Sumatran male tiger cub a first vaccination and microchipping, as mamal curator Antonis Balas holds the animal at Attica Zoological Park near Athens, Greece, on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026, as part of an effort to build a backup population of the critically endangered species. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Two male two-month-old Sumatran tiger cubs receive their first vaccination and are microchipped at Attica Zoological Park near Athens, Greece, on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026, as part of an effort to build a backup population of the critically endangered species. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

LONDON (AP) — Britain is set to ban goods from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank in response to an expansion program that is imperiling efforts to establish a Palestinian state, the U.K. government said Tuesday.

Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband is due to give details in the House of Commons later, after saying last week that he would “reset” U.K. relations with Israel.

Before the announcement, Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said that it “isn’t intended to be a boycott of all Israeli goods.”

He said that the measures were “specifically targeted at the expansion of these settlements, which are illegal under international law, in the West Bank.”

“At the heart of the statement is the idea that the U.K., along with many other countries, do not want to see the possibility of a two-state solution in Israel and Palestine being erased by changes to the facts on the ground,” McFadden told Times Radio.

The government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the most ultranationalist and religious in Israel’s history. It has presided over a surge of settlement construction in the West Bank, which Israel seized in the 1967 Mideast war and which would make up the main part of a future Palestinian state.

Netanyahu's government views the West Bank as the biblical and historical homeland of the Jewish people and is opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state.

The United Kingdom, a longtime ally of Israel, recognized Palestinian statehood last year in an attempt to revive dwindling efforts to achieve a two-state solution.

The center-left Labour Party government has previously sanctioned some Israeli settlers and illegal outposts over violence against Palestinians and illegal development in the West Bank. Tuesday's announcement is set to expand sanctions to cover trade in goods, and possibly some services, with all West Bank settlements.

U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham has voiced concerns about the E1 settlement project approved by Israel, which would effectively cut the territory in two. Palestinians and rights groups say it could destroy hopes for a future Palestinian state.

A tougher line on settlements is likely to be welcomed by many Labour voters and lawmakers, who have urged the government to go further in sanctioning Israel and supporting the Palestinians.

But some expressed concern that the move could boost support for Netanyahu, who is facing a tough battle for reelection in October.

Senior Israeli ministers condemned the U.K. government’s impending announcement. Foreign Minister Gideon Saar warned that “if Britain acts against Israel, Israel will act against Britain.”

Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s hard-line public security minister, called on Netanyahu to recognize Argentina’s claim to the Falkland Islands, a British overseas territory in the South Atlantic known in Argentina as Islas Malvinas.

The move also was criticized by the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, who said that it was “discrimination against the Jewish people.” He said that the U.K. could face “repercussions or retaliations” from the U.S. if it imposed the sanctions.

Several U.S. states have laws banning contracts or investments with businesses that boycott Israeli firms, including those based in the West Bank. U.S. Rep. Randy Fines, R-Fla., said in a post on social media that the U.K. ban could put at risk “billions of dollars” in trade between British businesses and Florida.

Burnham’s office said that the prime minister spoke to U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday and set out “the U.K.’s commitment to working toward peace and security in the region” and achieving a two-state solution. There was no word on how Trump responded.

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Megan Mineiro contributed to this report from Jerusalem.

FILE - Britain's Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband speaks during a press conference in Madrid, Spain, on July 29, 2026. (Leon Neal/Pool Photo via AP, File)