‘Emotional’ caretakers mourn death of extremely rare 3-month-old white tiger cub

Mother of cub kept ‘calling out to find out where it went’ after it died

A zoo in India’s national capital has mourned the loss of a white tiger cub just three months after they welcomed it with two other siblings.

The cub died last week, days after it started showing signs of limping, said Akanksha Mahajan, the director of Delhi’s National Zoological Park.

It was born to a white tiger couple, seven-year-old tigress Sita and Vijay, earlier in September this year.

“There were three cubs, you know. So, emotionality is always attached because when they are born, you always expect all should survive,” she told The Independent. The loss was also felt by the mother, who looked for the dead cub for days, shared Ms Mahajan.

“That day when the cub died, [Sita] was calling out to find out where it went. She was even searching in the haystack which we put for the cubs in the enclosure,” the director said.

“Whenever we have to go and administer the medicine, she (now) marks her own territory because whenever the animal sees the threat, it always marks its territory.”

“The attachment is also felt by the caretaker and the keepers because they have been nurturing them,” she said, adding the cub has now been cremated as per the established procedure.

The cub started experiencing a sudden non-functioning of its hind parts, the zoo director said. “The medical treatment required was provided, along with laser therapy. Because the first symptom is muscular dysfunction, so accordingly the supplements were given.

“But it did not recover and within two days of first developing the symptoms, it collapsed.”

This is something that happens to white tigers, explains Ms Mahajan, adding that another tiger cub has also started exhibiting similar symptoms.

“[The cub that died] had previous limping. It did not have the only problem of hind limp. It was initially having the problem of limping in one of the legs. Then it was [felt] that [the cub] should be given more supplements of calcium or something (sic),” she shared.

“[The cub] was, however, not able to come up. The symptoms were only in one of them. But [the other sibling] also started showing limpness when he sat down completely for two days.”

“It [limping] increased in the hind limb,” she added.

Zoo authorities immediately took a blood test and sent it for analysis to the Indian Veterinary Research Institute, a disease diagnostic centre in Bareilly city.

“We just want to rule out whether there is any pathological infection or not. We have already proactively started providing medicines to this cub and he is responding also. But we want to know the root cause.”

If it is not pathological, the zoo will consider genetic anomalies, Ms Mahajan said. “White tigers have the issue of inbreeding depression because they have recessive alleles,” she said, referring to decreased biological fitness observed due to continual inbreeding.

“Because of recessive alleles, there is more of congenital disease in these animals, in which non-functioning of the hind leg is also the cause.”