Jakarta Globe – AFP, August 9, 2013
Kirana, a female Sumatran tiger nuzzles one of her month-old cubs in their enclosure at Chester Zoo in northern England July 1, 2013. (Reuters Photo/ Phil Noble) |
Washington.
Two rare Sumatran tiger cubs were born this week at the National Zoo in the US
capital, in what zookeepers described Thursday as a conservation victory for
the critically endangered cats.
The births
late Monday were a first for the tiger mom, Damai, who mated with the zoo’s
12-year-old male Kavi.
The babies’
eyes are not yet open, but they are nursing and crawling all over their mother,
“as if her body is a jungle gym,” the zoo said in a statement.
A webcam on
the National Zoo’s site showed black and white images of the cubs lounging and
rolling in a darkened den with their mom on Thursday morning.
A zoo
spokeswoman told AFP that no humans have come near the cubs yet, and they have
no plans to for a couple of weeks.
“Not only
are our two new Sumatran tiger cubs the cutest cubs in town but they are also a
huge conservation success,” the zoo statement said.
“With fewer
than 500 Sumatran tigers in the wild, the birth of these cubs makes a stride in
the direction towards saving this critically endangered species.”
The only
place in the world where these tigers are found in the wild is on the
Indonesian island of Sumatra, where poaching and deforestation are major
threats to the species’ survival, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
Agence France-Presse
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