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DO TIGERS LIKE
HAM?
In a zoo in
California, a mother tiger gave birth to a rare set of triplet tiger cubs.
Unfortunately, due to complications in the pregnancy, the cubs were born
prematurely and due to their tiny size, died shortly after birth. The
mother tiger after recovering from the delivery, suddenly started to
decline in health, although physically she was fine. The veterinarians
felt that the loss of her litter had caused the tigress to fall into a
depression.
The doctors decided that
if the tigress could surrogate another mother's cubs, perhaps she would
improve. After checking with many other zoos across the country, the
depressing news was that there were no tiger cubs of the right age to
introduce to the mourning mother.
The veterinarians decided
to try something that had never been tried in a zoo environment. Sometimes
a mother of one species will take on the care of a different species. The
only "orphans" that could be found quickly, were a litter of weaner pigs.
The zoo keepers and vets wrapped the piglets in the tiger cubs skins and
placed the babies around the mother tiger.
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