The mother tiger, three-year-old Cinta, rejected the cubs, which vets said is not unusual for a first-time birth.
“It’s not uncommon for first-time tiger moms not to know what to do,” Mike Delaney, the zoo’s curator of mammals, said.
“Nursery staff is keeping them warm and feeding them every three hours.”
Tiger CubsThree Malayan tiger cubs were born on Friday, February 3 and are now being cared for in the Zoo’s nursery. First-time mom Cinta’s maternal instincts did not kick in and vets, concerned that the cubs' body temperatures would dip too low without the warmth of mom's body, made the call to remove them from the den. Read the full story here: http://cincinnatizoo.org/blog/2017/02/07/malayan-tiger-cubs-born-at-the-cincinnati-zoo/
Posted by Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden on Tuesday, February 7, 2017
The cubs come from a genetically valuable tiger line. They will eventually help keep the Malayan tiger population in the 28 zoos that care for the subspecies genetically diverse.
It’s estimated that there are fewer than 500 Malayan tigers left in the wild.
Habitat destruction, fragmentation and poaching are the main reasons for the decline of the Malayan tiger.
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