Rare Siberian tiger shows off new cubs (VIDEO)
A zoo in Central Russia welcomed two litters of endangered big-cat species in a single day
A zoo in Central Russia welcomed two litters of rare tigers in one day earlier this month, the facility has announced. A video has been published of four kittens from one of the litters, which belongs to the endangered Siberian Tiger subspecies.
The big-cat couple, called Bagheera, which in Russian denotes a female, and Shere Khan, named after characters in Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, had three males and one female kitten on July 2, Barnaul Zoo in the Altay region has reported.
The second four-cub litter, this one of the endangered Bengal Tiger variety, was born on the same day to another couple of big cats, the announcement added.
“Bagheera and Shere Khan have had three boys and one girl. Fifa and Mayak [the Bengal Tigers] have had two girls and two boys. Bagi [Bagheera] is proudly showing off her babies, while Fifa is not ready yet,” it explains.
The Siberian Tiger, also known as the Amur Tiger, is native to the cold forests of Russia’s Far East and of Northeast China. It is considered by many experts to be the world’s largest tiger. The most recent data provided by The International Union for Conservation of Nature suggests that, in 2022, between 260 and 480 Siberian tigers survive in the Russian Far East. Several hundred more are kept in zoos and nature parks worldwide.
In the 1940s, the Siberian tiger was on the brink of extinction, with fewer than 50 believed to remain in the wild.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been a vocal advocate of protecting the endangered tiger subspecies, having created a foundation for their conservation in 2013.
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Bengal tigers, considered to be the world’s second largest tiger after the Siberian subspecies, live in the hot and humid forests and wetlands of India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal. Some 2,000 to 2,500 individuals of this endangered variety, also known as the Indian Tiger, are estimated to remain in the wild. Several thousand more live in zoos and private reserves around the world.