A tigress killed her three new child cubs in a zoo in West Bengal’s Siliguri final week whereas carrying them in her mouth. Her tooth broken the windpipes of two cubs and the cranium of the third. A zoo official described the deaths as “unintentional”.
This was the second litter of Rika, the tigress, who had struggled along with her first litter as effectively. In the identical zoo, Rika’s sister Kika had misplaced each her cubs final 12 months — one died quickly after delivery, and Kika deserted the second, resulting in extreme malnutrition.
Infanticide in mythology…
Infanticide has been a recurrent theme in human historical past and mythology.
The traditional Spartans deserted weak and deformed newborns on the Apothetae (place of rejection) on the slope of Mount Taygetus in southern Greece, the thinker Plutarch wrote.
In Greek mythology, Cronus, the daddy of Zeus, devoured his newborns after it was prophesied that one in all his youngsters would dethrone him. (Zeus escaped as a result of Rhea, Cronus’s consort, gave him a rock disguised because the toddler Zeus, which Cronus swallowed.)
The myths of Oedipus and Perseus pivot on the abandonment of infants as a result of perceived threats they posed to their father or grandfather.
…And amongst animals
It’s not unusual in animals both.
The male of the species is chargeable for most infanticides within the wild. Upon taking up a rival’s territory and females, male cats kill the predecessor’s cubs, particularly the males, to nip future competitors and promote his bloodline.
Far much less widespread are cases of filial infanticide wherein the mom kills her cubs.
Useful resource administration
Just like the Spartans, animals don’t make investments hard-earned sources in weak offspring. Because of this moms, each within the wild and in captivity, usually reject or kill their cubs selectively to offer the surviving ones a greater likelihood.
* In September 2018, a lion cub born severely underweight in Kolkata’s Alipore Zoo was deserted by her mom Sruti two days after the supply.
* Earlier, in Could 2013, leopard Basanti deserted her cub after 32 days in a zoo in Jamshedpur. In Jhargram, additionally in Jharkhand, one other zoo leopard, Harshini, fed her cub for six weeks earlier than killing it in Could 2020.
* In Gwalior Zoo, tigress Meena invested six months in her feminine cub who was born weak earlier than killing it in September 2022. Her different cub, a wholesome male, did effectively.
* In September 2023, Sumatran tigress Zayana killed her first cub after the second cub of the litter was stillborn in Auckland Zoo. In January 2024, she delivered a wholesome litter of three, and raised the cubs effectively. Some specialists imagine the stillbirth overwhelmed Zayana; others assume she wished to spend money on a much bigger litter.
Hormones, inexperience
Conception and supply set off particular hormones to induce maternal behaviour. A hormonal imbalance, say specialists, can result in aggression in cats in the direction of their cubs. First-time moms and moms who had been orphaned of their infancy generally battle to rear cubs.
* In August 2019, lioness Kigali, a first-time mom in Germany’s Leipzig Zoo, devoured her two cubs whereas grooming them.
* In August 2014, lioness Megha, additionally a first-time mom, picked up her cubs inside hours of their delivery in Indore Zoo, and all three died of neck accidents.
* Rupa, a white tigress in Odisha’s Nandankanan Zoo, stopped feeding her first litter in March 2022, resulting in the loss of life of two cubs. The third was hand-raised.
* In April 2014, an African lioness born in Pakistan’s Bahawalpur Zoo attended to her first litter of 4 cubs for a few days earlier than refusing to feed them.
An inexperienced mom may be over-anxious whereas grooming or restraining her cubs. They usually danger an infection to their cubs by seemingly innocuous acts like licking the severed umbilical cords vigorously. However inexperience can result in deadlier penalties as effectively.
* In Could 2014, 4 new child tiger cubs had been killed underneath the load of their mom Gauri in Ranchi’s Bhagwan Birsa Organic Park.
* In Could 2019, a tigress in Dublin zoo rolled over her cub minutes after delivery, killing it immediately.
* And in June 2012, white tigress Ganga killed one in all her cubs by stepping on it in Bokaro Zoo.
Not all moms get wiser with expertise.
After delivering a cub in June 2022, tigress Lee in Maharashtra’s Gorewada Zoo groomed it by licking earlier than lifting it by the tail to position it on dry grass. However whereas shifting it the second time, her canines dug into the cub’s neck. In February 2018, the identical tigress had induced deadly neck and head accidents to her 4 cubs.
Stress and insecurity
Even cats which are effectively accustomed to captivity show an acute insecurity whereas with cubs, and are sometimes overcome by a determined safety intuition.
In June 2012, when the common lion keeper at Hyderabad’s Nehru Zoological Park was absent, a substitute was despatched to feed Rita, a 12-year-old lioness with two small cubs. Startled by the sight of a stranger, the lioness bit laborious into one in all her cubs, killing it.
In June 2013, after a zoo in Antwerp, Belgium, returned two lion cubs to their mom’s enclosure after vaccination, the lioness, Lorena, bit them to loss of life. The zoo described Lorena as “a nervous lioness with a fiery mood” who had additionally killed one in all her two cubs in 2011.
Simply misunderstood
In October 2018, Indianapolis Zoo employees watched because the lioness Zuri attacked and killed the lion Nyack, her companion of eight years and the daddy of her three cubs.
There aren’t any explanations for Zuri’s violent aggression — which spotlights the boundaries to our understanding of animal behaviour in human phrases. Their unsentimental useful resource administration, say specialists, are sometimes misunderstood.
Within the wild, a cat both eats her useless cubs to regain a few of the vitality she expended throughout being pregnant and feeding, or carries them away so the carrion doesn’t invite predators to her surviving cubs. The identical instincts are seen in captivity as effectively.
