BRATISLAVA Zoo and its employees are happily welcoming three cubs born to the zoo’s protected white tigers (Panthera tigris).
“The newborns are healthy, viable and their mother is taking care of them excellently,” Miloslava Šavelová, the zoo’s chief, told the TASR newswire in early May.
Despite one cub’s initial problems gaining weight, when it had to be fed substitute milk from a bottle, their growth has otherwise been very good.
The mother of the triplets is five-years-old Shilang, who came to Bratislava from the zoo in Cora-Lisieux, France in October 2006.
The father of the offspring, all of which are female, is Achilles, nine years old, who came to Bratislava several weeks after Shilang.
“Nature made Shilang a mother for the third time now, this time with triplets. Achilles is separated from the family as it is usual in natural environments that the male does not help in taking care of and raising the cubs,” Šavelová stated.