Bhubaneswar: The tiger population at the Nandankanan Zoological Park (NZP) here increased from 24 to 26 after a white tigress gave birth to two cubs in captivity, a zoo official said Saturday.
Ankita, the white tigress, gave birth to two normal-coloured cubs in an enclosure of the Nandankanan Zoological Park here last night, the official said, adding that Saturday happened to be Ankita’s birthday. The tigress delivered the first cub at 10:12pm and the second one at 10:40pm. The entire process was monitored through CCTV cameras, the official said. NZP deputy director Jayant Kumar Das said, “Ankita had mated with Saif, a normal-coloured, zoo-bred tiger, brought from Hyderabad zoon October 1 last year.” Ankita was born in the Nandankanan zoo in 2012.
Of the 26 tigers in the zoo, 18 are normal coloured and eight are white (a pigmentation variant of the Bengal tiger), the official said.
PNN