Tiger cubs spread joy at Aurangabad zoo

"The cubs were born healthy and we ensured that the neo-natal care period also passes off well. Now, we plan to bring them out for public display by early June", B S Naikwade, director of the  Aurangabad Zoo, told reporters on Wednesday.

The four cubs - one male and three females - were born on March 6 and 8 respectively to an 11-year old Royal Bengal tigress Dipti and her mate Guddu, Naikwade said. The cubs weighed around 1.5 kg at birth and are now a robust 4 kg each, he added.


"Four cubs born to a tigress at a time is considered rare and we are very happy with the development. We have sent a report on this to the Central Zoo Authority and the Maharashtra forest department," an elated Naikwade told reporters. So far, the cubs have not been named but the zoo plans to christen them in June when they emerge from the mother's neo-natal care.

Dipti was presented to the Aurangabad Zoo by the Chatbir Zoo in Chandigarh in August 2006. At present, the new arrivals have been completely kept off bounds, barring special visitors, in a separate enclosure to prevent disturbances and possibilities of any infections. However, starting June the zoo plans to bring them out for an hour daily for the 1000-plus visitors and tourists who throng the 18-acre zoo in the Siddharth Garden area in the heart of the city.

The zoo has two pairs of Royal Bengal tigers, the four new cubs and seven white tigers as its chief attraction, besides several other wild animals. The Aurangabad Zoo shot into limelight last July (2009), when tigress Rani escaped from her enclosure for over three hours after a wall collapsed following a storm that lashed the city.