Zoo caretakers help tiger to give birth to cubs
Two Indochina tigers at Thao Cam Vien Zoo in HCM City safely gave birth to four small cubs with the help of workers at the zoo who are often called “midwives”.
The small tigers are strong and growing well. Prior to the delivery of the tigers, a female tiger sourced from Thua Thien-Hue Province also gave birth to five cubs in February after a 104-day pregnancy.
Tran Minh Tam, a member of the team in charge of taking care of animals at Thao Cam Vien, is in charge of feeding nine newly born tigers. He has been doing the dangerous job for nine years.
Though the tigers are tame and live in captivity, they are by nature wild, and can attack people at any time. Only skillful people can work in these jobs.
The first thing Tam and his colleagues do every day is clean up the tigers’ cages.
After finishing the work, he watches the tigers from afar. “We need to find out if there are any changes with the animals after a night of living in cages. If we discover something unusual, we report this immediately to doctors to have the tigers examined,” Tam explained.
Tam also keeps watch over the tigers and feeds them every day. Each tiger needs 6-7 kilos of pork and beef for each meal.
Tam pays special attention to Mi, an Indochina tiger who has given birth to five cubs. He said Mi’s successful childbearing was one of the most wonderful events at Thao Cam Vien zoo in the last 20 years.
