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Six rare white Bengal tiger cubs were born in a local zoo in Zhengzhou, capital of central China's Henan Province, becoming new members to the growing family.
White Bengal tigers are a variant of the better-known orange Bengal tigers. As their coloration is dependent on a defective gene that is passed on from their parents, such tigers are extremely rare, and the birth of six cubs at one time is an irregular occurrence, making the rearing and caretaking a huge challenge for zookeepers.
The zoo thus utilized artificial breeding in an incubator with a constant temperature to make it easier for the mother tiger to bring up the babies. Zookeepers have developed a special parenting plan to take care of them around the clock, including feeding cubs milk once every two hours, massaging their abdomens to help with digestion and excretion and weighing them every day.
"White tiger sextuplets are rarely seen. For the tiger mother, if she takes care of her cubs by herself, she will be stressed out. Therefore, we immediately adopted the method of artificial breeding. We took the six cubs to the nursery, and our nursery staff then acted as human parents to take care of them," said Xu Fu, head of the Animal Management Department of the zoo.
According to the zoo, the six white tiger cubs will make their public debut on Wednesday.
(Cover image via screenshot)
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Disinformation report hotline: 010-85061466