Leipzig Zoo has euthanized three tiger cubs a few days after their birth. The mother had not taken care of the cubs, the zoo announced. Therefore, the three little Amur tigers had to be spared suffering, it said. Hand-rearing was out of the question in terms of species-appropriate wild animal husbandry.
Mother still inexperienced
The cubs were born on Wednesday evening. It was the first litter of the tigress "Yushka". The still inexperienced cat had initially licked the newborns dry, but turned away from her offspring a few hours later.
"The fact that she then stopped rearing them for no apparent reason is emotionally sad from a human perspective, but is part of the behavioral repertoire of inexperienced mothers in the animal kingdom," said Zoo Director Jörg Junhold.
In the two days in which the mother no longer cared for them, the little tigers cooled down and became increasingly weaker. "At this point, when the cubs no longer show any active behavior and thus no longer stimulate the mother to feed or produce milk, we have to live up to the heavy responsibility and spare the cubs the suffering of starvation," explained veterinarian Andreas Bernhard.
