White tiger cubs turn 1, Delhi zoo throws them a birthday bash

Akanksha Mahajan, Director, National Zoological Park, Delhi, said, “The two animals were brought out into the arena and they explored the enrichment that was done at the enclosure for them.”

White tiger cubs Avani and Vyom play with the sack filled with meat pieces at Delhi Zoo, Saturday, Aug. 26, 2023 (Express Photo By Amit Mehra)

Meat pieces were placed in a sack filled with hay and hung on a tree at the enclosure. Additionally, bits of chicken, meat sticks, minced meat and bones were put in boxes and placed in the enclosure for the tigers to find.

“They were successful in pulling the sack down, and exploring it,” Mahajan said.

A cake was cut with the school kids, visitors and staff, and the event was attended by Chandra Prakash Goyal, Director General, Forests, and Special Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, and SK Shukla, Member Secretary, Central Zoo Authority.

A cake was cut with school kids, visitors and staff on the cubs’ first birthday, Saturday, Aug. 26, 2023 (Express Photo By Amit Mehra)

Mahajan added that the enclosure of the tigers was decorated with balloons and garlands. The school students were gifted saplings. Other animals at the zoo were also presented with a ‘treat’ to mark the occasion. Birds had corn, meat was similarly placed for other carnivores, and elephants had rice laddoos, banana tree stalks, and fruits like pears and apples, Mahajan said.

The zoo houses 12 tigers, five of which are white. The two cubs, which were born on August 24 last year, were released into the enclosure for public viewing in April this year.

While three cubs were born to tigress Sita last year, one died in December after showing some signs of limping. A second cub had then recovered from similar symptoms. Until they were released into the arena for public viewing, they were housed in a separate enclosure with the mother.

White tigers are white on account of an expression of recessive genes.