RAWALPINDI: Three cubs born to Polly, a Bengal tiger, at Ayub Park Jungle World Zoo were opened for public view on Saturday.

The 14-year-old tiger gave birth to two female and one male cub in March, but the cubs were kept in isolation. A veterinarian recommended that they be brought out into the open after medically examining them.

Polly previously gave birth to four cubs in 2011, two of which were exchanged for a puma and zebra. The other two, Umeed Jr and Sascha Jr, are still at the Jungle World Zoo until 2017, when Sascha Jr was exchanged for a white tiger named Kiran.

Polly and her three cubs were kept in isolation because the mother stopped feeding her children if they were exposed for general viewing, retired Lt Col Shehzad Mehmood, the director of the Army Heritage Foundation (AHF) explained. “The tigress also became violent if the cubs were separated from their mother,” he added.

He said all the cubs are healthy, and are examined every week. However, he said, they still require attention. An individual has also been deputed to feed the cubs, as their mother would become aggressive when different people would feed them, and it was difficult to control her.

The lifespan of a Bengal tiger is 18 to 20 years, they usually weigh between 135 and 225 kilograms, with a shoulder height of 110cm and a gestation period of more than 103 days, he said.

Mr Mehmood added: “Of the five different species of tigers in the world, we have the Bengal tiger species at Jungle World Zoo in Ayub National Park. Each tiger has a different stripe pattern. Of the seven Bengal tigers, we have five with Bengal tiger stripes and two are white tigers.”

White tigers, he explained, are not a separate species but are just white Bengal tigers.

“They sleep for about 16 hours a day and hunt at dusk or dawn.”

Bengal tigers are good swimmers, and enjoy spending time in the water in warm weather. There are around 5,000 Bengal tigers left in the world; white tigers are mostly in captivity, and there are reportedly less than a hundred in the world’s zoos.

Mr Mehmood said that in 2009, the zoo just had one tiger: 17-year-old Umeed.

“The Army Heritage Foundation corresponded with the Embassy of Pakistan in Brazil to import a tigress. The Brazilian department of environment and natural resources offered to gift three tigresses as a goodwill gesture; we just had to pay the freight and other travel charges,” he said.

Those three tigers, 18-year-old Pandora, 12-year-old Sascha and 6-year-old Polly, arrived in September 2010.

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2018