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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, they 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 cub's, 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 weanling pigs The zoo keepers and vets
wrapped the piglets in tiger skin and placed the babies
around the mother tiger. Would they become cubs or pork
chops?? |
