Unexpected tiger cub at Tacoma zoo is female
Published 9:46 pm Thursday, April 18, 2013
TACOMA — Zookeepers in Tacoma say a newborn female Sumatran tiger cub that came as a surprise to them will be hand-reared because her mother is, well, just not that interested.
The News Tribune reported that staffers at Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium are bottle-feeding the cub every three hours. She was found Wednesday in a nest box in the tiger exhibit.
Zoo staff said they hadn’t known the mother, 9-year-old Jaya, was pregnant.
The new cub’s older brother, 8-month-old Dumai, was hand-reared for the same reason. The zoo brought him a playmate of the same age from the Tulsa Zoo.
Zoo general curator Karen Goodrowe Beck said the Sumatran tiger is an endangered species and zoo births are rare.
