Bhubaneswar zoo gets three tiger cubs

BHUBANESWAR: The Nandankanan zoo here got three tiger cubs after a white tigress Sneha gave birth to them on Friday morning. With the birth of cubs, the population of tiger in the zoo has gone up to 24.

Zoo officials said male Royal Bengal Tiger (RBT) Manish is the cubs’ father. Two years ago, four cubs were born to Manish and Sneha.

Zoo director Sisir Acharya said one of the three new-born cubs is melanistic (black stripe body), which is rare. “Last year, two melanistic cubs born to Sneha were brought to the enclosure, which is first instance in a zoo in the country having such breed in the enclosure,” said Acharya.

The new-born animals are healthy and they have been kept in quarantine. “They are being watched in CCTV. Till they become at least one year old, we can’t enter the enclosure. We are yet to now the sex of the three cubs. However, the CCTV footage shows one of the cubs is melanistic,” he added.

Since April, the zoo has witnessed birth of five tigers. In April, the zoo for the first time got two cubs, which were born to a wild-born (born in forest) male tiger Nandan and tigress Megha. The wild gene of the cubs helps breed healthy tigers in future.

Nandan, the RBT, which had strayed into the zoo in 2013 on its own, became a father for the first time with its partner Megha, which was born in zoo also becoming mother for the first time. Earlier, all the cubs’ parents were born in the zoo.

In April, the tiger population had gone down to 20 after the zoo gave away four tigers to Alipore zoo, Kolkata in exchange of a giraffe. The giraffe however died two days after it was lodged in an enclosure here.

The zoo authorities said they might get two more cubs in a day or two as tigress Vijaya is pregnant. Both Vijaya and its partner Samrat are white tigers.