Four new white cubs, a rarity, were born of Royal Bengal tiger couple Raj and Pori of Chittagong Zoo on Saturday, according to media reports.
The number of white tigers now stand at five there.
All four cubs are healthy. They are suckling on their mother’s milk and the average weight of each tiger cub is around 800-900 grams. Their sex can be determined after seven days, Chittagong Zoo Deputy Curator Dr Shahadat Hossain Shuvo told .
For the time being, the cubs and mother tiger will not be on display for visitors, he added.
Earlier on August 26 last year, the Raj-Pori couple’s daughter Shubhra, gave birth to a white cub.
Experts said since the parents are not white, the birth of these cubs with black stripes on white is rare.
Shahadat Hossain said they separated the mother tiger a month ago and kept her on round-the-clock CCTV surveillance.
Chittagong Zoo brought two tigers – Chandra and Purnima – from Dhaka Zoo for the first time in 2003. Chandra died in 2006 and Purnima in 2012.
Since then, there was no tiger in the zoo. Raj and Pori were imported from South Africa for Tk33 lakh on 9 December 2016. In 2018, Pori gave birth to Shubhra, the first white tiger in Bangladesh.
In 1988, then Deputy Commissioner of Chattogram MA Mannan, took the initiative to set up the zoo which was opened to the public on 28 February 1989. Currently this zoo has over 350 animals of 72 species that include 30 mammal species, 38 species of birds, and four species of reptiles.
About five lakh people visit this zoo, the only one in Chattogram.
Currently, mammals in the Chittagong zoo include the Royal Bengal tiger, Indian lion, Asian Black bear, African zebras, Maya deer, Chitra deer, Sambar deer, Para deer, Mukhapora hanuman, owls, Rhesus monkeys, Fishing cat, cheetah, gandagokul (Himalayan), rabbits, porcupines, foxes and more.
Among the different species of birds in the zoo are pheasants, peacocks, raj dhanesh, kak dhanesh, vultures, madantak, white buck, nishi buck, doves, bhuban kite, cuckoos, mynas, khanjana bird, turkeys and more.
