Woman breastfeeding tiger cubs in Myanmar
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-04-04 13:28

YANGO - A lactating woman in Myanmar has volunteered to breastfeed a pair of endangered Bengal tiger cubs recently born at a Yangon zoo and separated from their aggressive mother.

Tiger cubs in this unidentified file photo. A lactating woman in Myanmar has volunteered to breastfeed a pair of endangered Bengal tiger cubs recently born at a Yangon zoo and separated from their aggressive mother. [AFP]

The two-week-old cubs, a male and a female, were taken from their mother Noah Noah after she killed the third cub in her litter, prompting veterinarians to engage in alternative childcare, the semi-official Myanmar Times weekly reported in its edition to be published Monday.

Hla Htay, 40, a relative of a Yangon Zoological Gardens staffer and a mother of three including a seven-month-old baby, stepped in when she learned the cubs needed breast milk to survive.

"I felt sorry for them so I decided to feed them before their teeth grow," she told the newspaper.

The cubs were the first born at the zoo for 16 years. Veterinarian Kyaw Myo Hlaing said they were being bottle-fed along with Hla Htay's half-hour breastfeeding sessions four times a day, the report said.

The cubs are to go on public display in two month's time.

Noah Noah and her mate were among two pairs of tigers sent from Thailand under an animal exchange program in 2001.

One year ago Myanmar's military government created the world's largest tiger reserve to protect its big cats, 250 of which remain in the wild.

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