Mixed breed cub dies of infection

It was being hand-reared by the wildlife guards at the zoo hospital,as it was abandoned by its mother on the ninth day.

The cub’s death was discovered early on Monday morning. “The cub was infected with Leprospira bacteria,which was transferred from the tigress. Last year,the tigress,Chorni,had aborted a cub 52 days after it was conceived. Traces of the bacteria must have been left in her,which were passed on to the cub,” Tushar Kanti Behra,field director,said.

The postmortem was conducted in the zoo hospital in the afternoon. The zoo administration has sent samples of different body organs of the cub to the Indian Vetinary Research Institute,Uttar Pradesh.

Chitra was fathered by a four-year-old white Bengal tiger. The zoo officials had kept the cub in the ICU to prevent it from catching infection.

Behra said the zoo authorities were trying their best to make the cross-breeding programme a success,keeping in view the dwindling population of tigers in the zoo. This was the second attempt at cross-breeding at the zoo.