Vandalur Zoo staff successfully hand rear a tiger cub

According to zoo sources, Uthra has a track history of poor feeding and her last few litters have resulted in the mortality of cubs. The zoo officials also installed CCTV cameras to monitor the behaviour of the wildcat. 

Seven weeks back Uthra delivered two cubs after mating with seven-year-old Vijayan. The first cub died due to poor feeding and starvation. At this juncture, the second cub was isolated from the mother, zoo sources said.  

According to a release from the zoo, the cub was given an intensive neonatal care due to which the cub survived. The cub is now maintained at an isolated room and has started taking chicken. Rearing orphaned cub is always a tough task and the zoo has successfully raised lion and tiger cubs in the recent past. The male tiger cub now weighs around 5.5 kg and will be thrown open for public after completion of four months.

“Vandalur zoo has been a successful breeding centre for tigers, lion-tailed macaques and Indian Gaur and the survival of the new cub is good news,” conservation scientist A Kumaraguru of Sathyamnagalam Tiger Conservation Foundation told DT Next. 

But there is a need for more in-depth study on the tigress to ascertain why is the big cat not able to feed her cub. Further its high time that the zoo should start exchanging all its brood stock with dominant animals available with other zoos so that a healthy captive gene pool is maintained at the zoo through animal exchange programmes, he said.