With large, frightened eyes and ruffled fur, he looks so cute that you wonder how his own mother could have rejected him. But she did and the zoo keepers had no choice but to try to hand-raise the new born.

There was great celebration at the Chhatbir Zoological Park, Chandigarh, when, in March this year a white tiger cub was born to the two resident white tigers Shanti and Guddu. But the happiness did not last long. The precious cub’s survival became a big challenge to the officials when its mother refused to feed it. After waiting for around ten hours, the cub (Gullu) was separated from its mother, as carnivores often kill a rejected offspring.
Initially Gullu had a lactating bitch as its foster mother. Later he was bottle fed 60ml of goat’s milk, every three hours. Now at two months, his diet includes soup with pieces of meat in it. Gullu seems to be growing well but the officials say they need to be on their toes until the cub is three months old and starts taking raw meat.
Most of us would consider adoption of an abandoned animal baby by humans as an act of kindness. But surprisingly, certain animal rights groups say that hand rearing of wild animals, is a form of ‘cruelty’. They hold that the animal is better off dead than raised by humans!

The debate started in Europe after the care of a polar bear cub was taken over by the officials at the Berlin zoo. Knut or ‘Cute Knut’, as the baby bear has become known, was born in December 2006. His mother ignored him and his brother. When Knut’s brother died, the zoo officials intervened and chose to raise the surviving cub themselves. Activist groups denounced it as a species inappropriate, bad decision and demanded that the cub be killed with an injection. Their argument was that the bear could never be domesticated and the current treatment would only lead to future difficulties for it in interacting with fellow polar bears.

Method in madness!
Why do some animals behave in such an un-motherly fashion and reject their own offspring?

In the wild, such a behaviour is observed among inexperienced, first time mothers.  But in the zoo, the reason is often the mother’s high level of stress. Most animals need a large area and secret spots to hide their cubs. In captivity the space is usually very limited. There is also too much artificial light and too many human ‘predators’ hanging around and watching the cubs.

Would a hand raised tiger or polar bear grow up to be a tame adult? No way, say the zoologists. Dogs, cats and other domestic animals have been tamed over thousands of years and the same cannot be expected to happen with the wild animals. Wild animals are self sufficient and do not need our help for survival. So, even if as babies they get attached to their caretakers, the animal instincts would eventually take over.