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 wiener pigs. The zoo keepers and vets wrapped the piglets in tiger skin and placed the babies around the mother tiger.
14 comments:
Awwww! That is so sweet! I love hearing about stuff like that.
I almost cried reading about this poor tiger mama. What a weird, sad story. Thank you for helping my work day fly by. Really.
That is so sad. Where do you find these stories?
I love how you say really Amy, because like most of the stuff you write is like not really. :)
I am on my sister's spam list Becca.
That is SO cool...I'm glad to report that MY mother obviously had that whole taking on another species thing down-pat.
I bet you looked good wrapped in a Tiger skin Perry.
lol...ok, NOW you're starting to sound like Steve! Hmmm, maybe I would...:O)
ohh the little wittle babies. oogy googy.
Hey! Lost you for a while...
What happens when the tiger figures out the babes make a good snack? I mean, aren't tigers meat eaters?
Aww, that's awesome. I guess one piggy's trash was a tiger mamma's treasure. *sniff* tear.
Ah, Shes curing the bacon and herself at the same time. Smart kitty.
How did the story end? Did it help her or did she realize they weren't really her babies and eat them?
Does anyone know Which zoo in California that happened at?
actually, I found the answer to my question about the zoo,here it is--
Comments: The photos are genuine, but there's more to this story than meets the eye.
To begin with, the snapshots were taken at the Sriracha Tiger Zoo in Chonburi, Thailand (near Bangkok), not some nameless zoo in California. Moreover, it would appear that the sad tale of the tigress falling into a deep depression after losing a litter of cubs was fabricated, as was the claim that the piglets were substituted for the deceased cubs by zookeepers in order to console the "mourning mother."
As it happens, this sort of intermingling of species is not at all unusual at the Sriracha Tiger Zoo, where "creating successful relationships with animals of different species" is something of a guiding principle. The facility, more accurately described as part zoo and part circus, boasts offbeat attractions like basketball-playing elephants, "lady crocodile wrestlers," and a petting zoo where customers can bottle-feed baby tigers with their own bare hands. Visitors have reported seeing tigers, pigs, and dogs all housed together within the same enclosure, with sows nursing tiger cubs and tigresses nursing piglets "adorned in tiger-print costumes."
The costumes are strictly for show, by the way. The mother tiger pictured above, who has been photographed on other occasions suckling piglets au naturel, was herself nursed by a pig in infancy and apparently regards the other species as family, not prey.
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