Four new cubs on display from today

MYSORE: Visitors to the Mysore Zoo would have to wait longer to catch a glimpse of white tiger cubs.

Though white tigress Manya gave birth to four cubs in June, none of them carry their mother's colour. The two-month old clubs will be released for public viewing from Monday, which is Global Tiger Day.

Manya, a captive bred tiger, was paired with Brahma, who was nabbed from Brahmagiri wildlife sanctuary in Kodagu. Though Mysore Zoo's experiment to create a new gene pool among tigers has yielded a positive result with the birth of four tiger cubs, its experiment to get new white cubs was not successful. Though Manya has delivered two times, none of her offspring are rare pigmentation variant.

The zoo now has 16 tigers including the six cubs, which were born since June-four of Manya's and two of Anu's. Both the tigresses were paired with Brahma. Over the past two months, the cubs were gradually exposed to human presence, zoo executive director B P Ravi said. Manya has also got accustomed to animal keepers, he said.