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Nicaragua: Rare Bengal tiger born in zoo

2021-09-01T13:00:08.834Z


Exceptional offspring in Nicaragua: a Bengal tiger was born in a zoo in the city of Masaya. The carers hope to get the baby through despite bottle feeding.


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Baby tiger is bottle-fed: extraordinary birth in Nicaragua

Photo:

INTI OCON / AFP

The state zoo in Masaya, Nicaragua, has good news to announce: a baby predator was born here at the weekend - a Bengal tiger.

This subspecies of the tiger is on the red list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature IUCN and is considered to be critically endangered.

The tiger cub has been fed milk from the bottle since it was born because the mother is unable to adequately care for her offspring, as zoo director Eduardo Sacasa announced.

The as yet nameless female tiger baby receives a special milk for cats.

"We'll take care of her so she'll survive," Sacasa said.

The "very sweet" baby tiger is going through a "difficult time" and is not given any colostrum to develop the natural defenses - this is particularly nutrient-rich milk that mammals produce for their offspring shortly after birth.

For the zoo it is already the fourth tiger offspring: Mother Dalila gave birth to a white baby tiger in December, but it died two weeks later due to breathing problems.

Two other female tigers in the zoo also gave birth to cubs.

Endangered species

The Bengal tiger (

Panthera tigris tigris

) lives mainly in India, but also in Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh.

The WWF estimates the number of animals living worldwide to be less than 2633. That is why the Bengal tiger is on the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature IUCN as critically endangered and is threatened with extinction.

The main reasons for this are the increasing clearing of its natural habitats in Asia and the hunting of tigers.

After the number of big cats in India had dropped to just 1,800 in the 1970s, head of state Indira Gandhi placed the Bengal tigers under protection and launched the nationwide tiger project.

There are now 37 tiger sanctuaries in 17 states in India.

The result: the number of animals is increasing again.

World Conservation Union meets in Marseille

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) starts its congress next Friday in the southern French port city of Marseille.

There, non-governmental organizations, indigenous peoples and government representatives - supported by a network of around 16,000 scientists - are given nine days of advice on proposals for the protection of animal and plant species.

Before the event began, the organization warned that species extinction, as well as climate change, environmental pollution and diseases leaking from wild animals, had become an existential threat to humans.

These problems could not be "understood and combated in isolation," it said.

The congress participants set the course for important UN summits on species and climate protection and food security.

The World Conservation Union had already prepared major international species protection agreements in the past.

In the past few years the IUCN has examined almost 135,000 species for its Red List.

Almost 28 percent of them are now critically endangered.

The global big cat population has shrunk by around 90 percent.

Only about 20,000 lions, 7,000 cheetahs, 4,000 tigers and a few dozen Amur leopards live in the wild.

ala / dpa

Source: spiegel

All life articles on 2021-09-01

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