Ming the City Tiger

This video still of the surveillance footage the NYPD captured of First Tiger of Harlem, Ming, is awesome. No sign of Al the Caiman Alligator. While it's sad Ming had to leave New York, wide open spaces are probably best for him.

Director Ellen Whitehouse of Noah's Lost Ark, the Berlin, OH animal refuge where the city tiger is now staying (pictured above), tells Newsday it will take a while for Ming to get used to things like birds and trees and ultimately, "He just really needs to be left alone." Ming, we wish you the best, but we hardly knew ye.

The Times has an editorial on big cats in the city, and how they are a bad idea. But Gothamist would still like to write a children's book about Ming and Al living in Harlem and visiting various parts of the city at night: Drinks with Joe the Bear in TriBeCa, Gowana the Gowanus Seal in Brooklyn.