San Francisco Zoo Welcomes New Tiger Cub
Weeks after a tiger was killed following a fatal mauling, a new one is born.
SAN FRANCISCO, March 8, 2008— -- First-time mom Leanne has barely left her little one's side since giving birth Thursday morning. Dad George, on the other hand, doesn't even know he has a baby.
But this is all normal for Sumatran tiger couples like Leanne and George, who were brought to the San Francisco Zoo specifically to breed.
Just a couple months after a tragedy that left one tiger and one human dead on Christmas Day, the zoo is welcoming a new life into its tiger family.
"I think we are all in different stages of the grieving process," said Dr. Jacqueline Jencek, the zoo's chief of veterinary services. "For me, I just look at this as a wonderful light."
Everyone at the zoo is ecstatic, though no one even knows yet whether the new cub is a girl or a boy.
"The first 72 hours are critical for a mom to be able to bond with her cub," Jencek said.
So, doctors and caretakers are monitoring only by camera and speaker, listening for squawks to indicate a healthy pair of lungs. The cub is currently squawking at a healthy rate.
This bonding time is so important that Leanne and her cub may be left to themselves for as much as a week, disrupted only when workers slip in to provide food.
Leanne is a "young adult," says Jencek, a thriving 5-year-old in her prime for giving birth. Her partner George is twice as old as she is, but given the happy results this time it's likely Leanne and George will be paired for at least a couple more rounds of litters.
Jencek says there is always a chance there will be more than one cub (anywhere from one to four per litter is typical) but so far the new tiger is an only child.
Leanne, it seems, is camera-shy. She has licked the camera lens, keeping the zookeepers from getting much of anything except blurry shots of the newborn.
But they know he or she is there. Leanne's belly is white, so when she rolls over observers can see a tiny brown cub crawling on her stomach.
Sumatran tigers, named for their homeland -- the Indonesian island of Sumatra -- are endangered mostly due to the loss of habitat and poaching. They are known for their black, white and orange stripes and are the smallest of the tigers, but only 400-500 are left in the world today.
