Calgary Siberian tiger cub under emergency care
Posted Jan 12, 2011 11:42 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Zoo officials are carefully watching the health of a Siberian tiger cub, after it appears that it was abandoned by its mother.
Communications Manager Laurie Herron tells 660News, the mother left the young cub and did not return to it for some time.
Veterinarians had waited as long as they could, watching the situation from infrared cameras before they felt they had to intervene.
“They went in about 7:30 to check on the cub and found her to be dehydrated and getting cold because her mother wasn’t with her,” she says.
Herron says officials began emergency care and while she appears to be responding reasonably well, it’s still too soon to tell.
“Sometimes when mothers leave their young, it’s because they sense there is something wrong,” she explains. “So far we don’t see that but it’s still very early to tell if there is congenital issues that we don’t know about yet.”
The mother, 10 year old Katja, had two previous cubs last September who did not survive.
This cub is currently receiving round the clock care, in hopes that things will turn around.
It’s also not known yet, if the cub does survive, whether Katja will be able to resume her parenting duties.
