Tiger cubs breastfed by Myanmar woman die of dehydration

[Guest guest]

Tiger cubs breastfed by Myanmar woman die of

dehydration

 

Thu May 12, 9:47 AM ET

 

YANGON (AFP) - Two endangered Bengal tiger cubs

breastfed for weeks by a Myanmar woman have died of

dehydration.

 

click here

 

The two cubs, a male and a female, were taken from

their mother Noah Noah after she killed the third cub

in her litter in March.

 

Hla Htay, 40, a relative of a Yangon Zoological

Gardens staffer, stepped in when she learned the cubs

needed breast milk to survive.

 

But the cubs had trouble digesting human breastmilk,

which combined with the grinding heat here proved

fatal, Khin Maung Win, chief veterinarian at the

Yangon zoo, told Interview Journal.

 

" The weather is too hot. The tiger cubs were not a

month old when they stopped receiving their mother's

milk, " he told the Myanmar-language weekly.

 

" They just had the human mother breastfeeding, but

their livers could not process the human milk. We

tried to treat them, " he said Thursday.

 

The female cub died April 27, and her brother died May

3, the report said.

 

The cubs were kept in an air-conditioned room, but

that was not enough to save them, it added.

 

The zoo plans to stuff the cubs and put them on

display, it said.

 

The cubs were the first born at the zoo for 16 years.

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.