Three Siberian Tiger cubs in poor health because of long-term
calcium deficiency have been cured by nutritionists and are now in
better condition in east China's
Zhejiang
Province.
The tigers, each four months old, were diagnosed Wednesday night
and have since recovered their good spirits and appetite, according
to caretakers in the Hangzhou Wildlife World, a wildlife park in
Hangzhou City.
Thursday and Friday morning, each of them ate 0.15 kilograms of
beef and 500 ml of milk. The most encouraging improvement was seen
Thursday morning, when they could stand up again. For the previous
three to four days, they could only lie on their sides.
The park called on the public for help Wednesday this week as the
three tigers, who have not yet been named, were in serious
condition. Since then, they have attracted attention from all
across the country.
The Xinhua website also set up an online forum and received more
than 1,000 messages in two days.
Wednesday night, an expert team led by Li Jinchang, a professor of
animal nutrition from Zhejiang University, diagnosed the cubs as
suffering from severe malnutrition.
Their mother, Hang Hang, abandoned the cubs after their birth in
March, refusing to feed them. Fed by a dog, the tigers had been in
poor health and had to be injected daily with a vitamin D3
supplement.
Half a month ago, the sale of vitamin D3 injections was stopped
because it was found to cause harmful side-effects in human beings.
Without the supplement, the tigers' condition deteriorated, from
staggering to finally failing to stand up. Their average weight was
about 10 kilograms, only half that of a four-month-old healthy
tiger.
After the diagnosis of Li and his team, the cubs were given
different calcium and other nutritional supplements.
Providing nutritious food for large mammal cubs in zoos has long
been a problem for the academic community, according to zoologists,
as it is common for large female wild animals to abandon their cubs
after delivery, especially those giving birth for the first time in
an artificial breeding environment.
The mother of the three tigers is now four years old and it was her
first delivery.
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
has put Siberian tigers top on its list of the world's 10 most
endangered animals. Because of problems including deteriorating
environment, the number of Siberian tigers decreased by a large
margin in the past years. Currently, there are less than 100 wild
Siberian tigers worldwide and several thousand artificially tamed
ones.
Now, Hang Hang is pregnant again and is expected to give birth
soon, said the breeders in the park. Zoologists said that
considering her previous behavior, she is very likely to abandon
her cubs again.
(Xinhua News Agency July 11, 2003)