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Deprived of mother’s milk, tiger cub dies

Cub was born to tigress Kaveri and a captive-born tiger Amulya on November 28.

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An eight-year-old tiger cub died in Chamarajendra Zoological Park on Tuesday. The cub was born to 11-year-old tigress, Kaveri, who was paired with captive-born tiger Amulya earlier this year.

After the cub’s birth, Kaveri licked her neonate fondly but did not allow the young one to suckle her. The zoo authorities tried stimulating her and the cub by allowing them to stay together, but Kaveri just kept ignoring the cub.

“Since the mother refused to feed it, we shifted the cub to a facility for hand-rearing at the zoo hospital. Special arrangements were made to procure nutrients like puppy milk, lactol powder, and colostrums from Bangalore. Efforts were also made to generate external heat at the right proportion. The cub was bottle-fed every three to four hours,” said BP Ravi, executive director of the zoo.

“Through a CCTV, we monitored the postpartum cage where the healthy cub and mother were together for more than 12 hours,” he said.

The cub suffered discomfort and its health deteriorated drastically due to indigestion, severe fatigue, and dehydration.
The cub did not respond to the supportive treatments.

“Hand-rearing of tiger cub from day one is very difficult and has been unsuccessful in other zoos and institutions, too, Ravi said.

For the first four days, the cub suckled milk which was bottle-fed by the caretaker. However, after a while it started showing signs of discomfort. It suffered from loose motion and abdominal distension.

On the behaviour of the mother tigress, Ravi pointed out that it is perhaps because of behavioural differences, which generally happens in captive-bred tigers. “But, such cases were very rare,” he added.

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