Abandoned by mother, white tiger cub dies in Odisha's Nandankanan

Rupa gave birth to the cubs at 3.5 years of age, as a tigress normally becomes mother after four years, zoo officials said.
Representational image of a Royal Bengal tiger and white tigress. (File Photo | Express)
Representational image of a Royal Bengal tiger and white tigress. (File Photo | Express)

BHUBANESWAR: One of the three cubs born to white tigress Rupa at Nandankanan Zoological Park 10 days back has died of illness after being abandoned by the mother, zoo authorities said on Monday. Rupa had given birth to a normal female cub and two white male cubs on March 11. The tigress, however, abandoned the cubs soon after giving birth forcing the staff to resort to hand-rearing.

One of the tiger cubs being
hand-reared by a staff at
Nandankanan Zoo.

Zoo deputy director Sanjeet Kumar said one of the white male cubs, died on Sunday evening following a brief illness. “The treatment of the cub was started as per the advice of veterinary doctors of OUAT. However, it collapsed in the evening,” Kumar said. He said the exact cause of the illness and death of the cub will be known following a postmortem.

The remaining two cubs are in good health and taking supplementary milk. They have been kept under observation of the zoo veterinarians, he said. The deputy director had earlier stated that it would be challenging for them to hand-rear the cubs in the absence of sufficient colostrum during birth. The cubs are surviving on reconstituted milk right from their birth as Rupa had failed to tend to the newborns for being a first time mother. Rupa gave birth to the cubs at 3.5 years of age, as a tigress normally becomes mother after four years, zoo officials said.

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