National Zoo’s Tiger Cub the New Cool Cat in Town

He weighs a manageable 23 pounds but will grow to at least 275. He looks cuddly and cute, but his teeth will grow to 3 inches long. And someday he will be strong enough to kill a person with a slap of his paw.

None of that mattered to Cai Murrah, 5, who waited in the cold for more than 40 minutes for a look at Berani, the National Zoo’s latest star. Cai, in town with his family from Kentucky to visit his grandmother for the holidays, said he just wanted to see the new cat in town.

“He was cool,” Cai said. “He wasn’t big, but he was cool.”

Cai was one of more than 1,000 people who got a peek at the Sumatran tiger cub in his public debut. Berani, was born Sept. 18, is the latest of this year’s presentation of new zoo animals.

Fewer than 500 Sumatran tigers live in the wild, and about 170 of the species live in zoos.