50 Siberian tiger cubs born in China's Heilongjiang park

BEIJING: China's largest Siberian tiger breeding centre Heilongjiang Siberian Tiger Park has announced that over 50 tiger cubs were born there this year.

Located in northeast China's Heilongjiang province, the park has over 1,000 Siberian tigers. Scientists handpick certain tigers, using a DNA database, to breed the next generation every year, the park announced yesterday.

Park's chief engineer Liu Dan said the park has been controlling the tigers' population to around 1,000 in order to maintain the ecological balance.

The peak season for the breeding of Siberian tigers is in May and June. The cubs, after living with their mothers for some 100 days, would be sent to a semi-wild environment of the park so that they can learn to run and hunt, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Siberian tigers are among the world's most endangered species. They mostly live in northeast China and eastern Russia. The Heilongjiang Siberian Tiger Park was established in 1986 for better protection of the species.