Lucknow: Tigress delivers cubs 5 days after a stillborn
White tigress Vishakha gave birth to three cubs five days after she delivered a stillborn cub on October 30. Of the three cubs, two were stillborn.
Tigresses usually give birth to litters within 24 hours but Vishakha’s is a strange case. The gestation period for a tigress is 105-days long but Vishakha delivered pre-mature cubs, all 90 to 95 days old. It was the behaviour of Vishakha after delivering birth to the first cub on October 30 that made vets at the zoo watchful.
After delivering a stillborn cub at 1pm on Wednesday, Vishakha bore another cub at 5pm which was alive but the tigress did not feed it. At 8pm same day, it delivered another stillborn cub. Zoo vets monitored the deliveries on CCTVs.
The only surviving cub is a rare white tiger but is extremely weak and almost inactive. After the mother refused to feed it, zoo staff shifted the cub to the hospital. The staff is taking care of the cub and it was fed milk with a bottle.
Vishakha is four-year old and was brought from Bhilai zoo last year. She was paired with white tiger Aryan.
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