Bengal tiger cubs rejected by natural mom, zoo officials say
YANGON, Myanmar - Hla Htay has three hungry infants to feed these days — a seven-month old baby boy and two Bengal tiger cubs.
Three times a day, the Myanmar housewife goes to the Yangon Zoo where she breastfeeds the hungry black-striped, orange-brown cubs rejected by their natural mother.
“The cubs are just like my babies,” Hla Htay told Fuji TV as as one of the baby big cats suckled her breast.
“It’s not scary at all,” she said of the 45-minute feeds. “I needed to do something for the cubs because I felt really sorry for them."
Three cubs were born at the zoo in mid-March, but their mother killed one and refused to nurse the others. Veterinarians rescued the other two but had little success bottle feeding them.
“They had some difficulties sucking the nipple on the bottle. When we tried to get the cubs to suck a lady’s breast, it was alright,” said a veterinarian.
The zoo says the breastfeeding will stop by the end of April or when the cubs start teething — whichever comes first.