Photo: OnceAndFutureLaura/Flickr
The three rare Sumatran tiger cubs born at Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium this month are all females. The cubs are nursing eagerly, and tiger mom Jaya is taking excellent care of them, said zoo General Curator Karen Goodrowe Beck. As the days go by, they're also becoming more mobile and moving around their den box a bit.
“All three appear to be healthy," said head veterinarian Dr. Karen Wolf. When fully grown, they’ll weigh around 200 pounds.
The cubs were born early last Wednesday to Jaya, 11. Malosi, 6, is the father.
“Jaya is a very attentive mother to her cubs,” Goodrowe Beck said. “She’s patient with them as they nurse and spends time grooming them.”
The new family remains behind the scenes at the Asian Forest Sanctuary area of the zoo. Zookeepers are keeping close watch on them via video cameras. The footage shows the cubs venturing a short distance away from their mom, then slowly, haltingly finding their way back on wobbly legs. They also squirm around as they move over one another while nursing, sometimes tumbling over and then righting themselves. Their eyes are just beginning to show signs of opening.
Sumatran tigers are critically endangered. The three cubs bring the species’ population to 80 – its largest number since the Association of Zoos & Aquariums' Species Survival Plan began in the late 1980s. There is now an equal number of males and females, 40 each, in North American zoos. A scant 300 remain in the wild on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, their population decimated over the years by habitat loss and poaching.
The cubs will remain behind the scenes at the zoo for at least a month, giving mom and cubs time to bond and the newborns time to nurse, grow and reach steady mobility. Keepers in the zoo's Asian Forest Sanctuary area will work in coming days on a slate of prospective names for the tiny tigers. Later this month, members of the public will be invited to vote on the names via an online survey.
Still photographs and video clips of Jaya and her cubs in their den will be periodically made available on zoo grounds, at the zoo website and on the zoo's Facebook page.
