CHENNAI: Four tiger cubs, which were born at Arignar Anna Zoological Park at Vandalur last week died with bite marks, confirmed park officials. According to AAZP sources the white tigress Uthra, which delivered the white tiger - Bengal mix cubs last Sunday - was aggressive during the entire delivery and the bite marks by the mother could have turned fatal for the cubs.
“One or two cubs dying in enclosures is common, but this is the first time that all the four cubs born at the zoo died in a phased manner. Uthra is blamed for the deaths, but there is a need to check why the mother tiger was aggressive”, said a zoo insider adding that the zoo now has a total of 26 tigers. Vijay and Uthra mated in the month of July and the pregnancy was confirmed by zoo veterinarians during the last week of July and after a gestation period of 110 days, healthy cubs were born, but are shocked over the sudden death of feline cubs, said another official.
“The mother and cubs have been kept away from visitors and CCTV cameras were used to monitor the behaviour of the tigress and this shows lack of qualified biologists attending the animals”, said a forester. Further with severe water logging inside all the animal enclosures the staff attended the issues and did their best to keep the animals stay fit, but the death of cubs has saddened most of us, the forester added.
