Guest guest Posted May 13, 2005 Report Share Posted May 13, 2005 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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