Escondido, California - Sumatran tigers Majel and Conrad received special enrichment items today at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, including replicas of the U.S. Postal Service’s Save Vanishing Species semipostal tiger stamps that were smeared with bone marrow for the tigers to enjoy.

The tigers, as well as representatives from the Safari Park, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) helped kick off a two-day special pictorial stamp cancellation opportunity taking place at the Safari Park’s Tull Family Tiger Trail on Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 20 and 21, promoting the sale of the USPS Save Vanishing Species semipostal stamp. The cancellation opportunity offers collectors and wildlife enthusiasts the chance to have stamps purchased at the Safari Park marked with a postal cancellation that says "San Diego Zoo Safari Park."

USPS representatives will have the Vanishing Species Stamps, Vanishing Species First Day of Issue Collection and Special Cancellation envelopes and postcards available at Tiger Trail from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday for Safari Park guests to purchase. All proceeds raised from the sale of the Vanishing Species stamps go to USFWS’s Multinational Species Conservation Funds, which support efforts to protect wild populations of tigers, rhinos, elephants, great apes and marine turtles.

The Vanishing Species tiger stamp was initially made available for purchase from September 2011 through December 2013. A bill was signed in October 2014, making the stamp available for an additional four years, through 2018. To date, over 22.5 million Save Vanishing Species semipostal tiger stamps have been sold, raising over $2.57 million dollars for wildlife conservation.

While the special enrichment items for the tigers provided Safari Park guests with photo opportunities, the items allowed the tigers to express species-specific behaviors such as clawing and using their teeth.

Bringing species back from the brink of extinction is the goal of San Diego Zoo Global. As a leader in conservation, the work of San Diego Zoo Global includes onsite wildlife conservation efforts representing both plants and animals at the San Diego Zoo, San Diego Zoo Safari Park, and the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, as well as international field programs on six continents. The important conservation and science work of these entities is made possible by the San Diego Zoo Global Wildlife Conservancy and is supported in part by the Foundation of San Diego Zoo Global.