History repeats itself at Ayub National Park

Rawalpindi

This times its four cubs again, which have been recently born here at Jungle World Zoo, Ayub National Park by the tigress Polly. Born on November 8, 2016 these Cubs are now 10 weeks old. This is the first time the Zoo Administration of Jungle World has allowed media to interact with them otherwise they were locked inside the cages with their mother. Polly gave birth to 4 cubs earlier in August 2011.

‘Umeed’, the white tiger is the proud father of these cubs. ‘Polly’ was gifted to Army Heritage Foundation by the Brazilian Government along with two other tigresses and were received in September 2010. ‘Sascha’ the other gifted tigress gave birth to two cubs in July 2011 and are still alive in Jungle World Zoo named ‘Rawal’ and ‘Rawail’. Polly has shown un-precedent love and affection towards her cubs this time. She licks them occasionally and plays with them displaying a strong bond between mother and her cubs.

Consultant Jungle World Zoo/ Veterinarian Brigadier (r) Khalid Hameed Chughtai while talking to ‘ The News’ here on Monday said that white tigers are very rare and are not a different species of tigers, they are just white coloured Bengal Tigers. They are not albinos but they have blue eyes. Head and body length of tigers is from 5 to 9 feet, weighing from 135 to 225 Kgs. Their life span is normally from 18 to 20 years. They sleep for 16 hours a day and normally hunt during dusk or dawn. They are very good swimmer and loves to spend time in water in hot weather.

Tigers commonly conceive after monsoon season and cubs are born after a gestation period of 103 days only. Cubs weigh under three pounds at birth and their eyes open in 15 to 16 days.

These Cubs are weaned at 4 to 6 months but depend on their mother for feed and protection for another two years. We had given special diet with vitamin supplements to Polly during her pregnancy and are continuing the same till the weaning of Cubs. Special arrangements were made in the breeding room where she helped the cubs with least disturbance.

Director Jungle World Park and Zoo Colonel (r) Taslim ul Haq said, they have provided inductive environment for the tigress to breed and the cubs flourished in a befitting manner. For the last two months we had been observing the movements of tigress and cubs in her breeding room through CCTV Camera and only one handler was deputed for the feed and keep. “With the grace of God all four Cubs are healthy and fit. We are extremely proud to say that in last about five years we have addition of 10 cubs in our zoo through different tigresses. In our Zoo not only tigers have multiplied but other animals have also multiplied in numbers like Zebras, Black Bears, Hog deer, Black buck, Chinkaras, Blue bulls, monkeys etc. We also had tremendous hatching of all species of birds like peasants, peacocks, parrots etc. We have presently about 150 animals of about 25 species and about 500 birds of about 50 species,” he said.

Director General Army Heritage Foundation Brigadier (r) Zaman Nasrullah Khan Niazi while taking to ‘The News’ said that they are extremely happy to have the addition of four cubs of Bengal Tigers in their Zoo and they appreciate the efforts of whole team of Jungle World Zoo in this regard. “We are constantly trying to enlarge and bring in new species of animals/ birds in our Zoo for the entertainment and education of general public and specially children,” he added. He said that constant efforts are made to maintain international standards of keeping the animals and birds in Jungle World Zoo.