Baby alert! Two Sumatran tiger cubs were born at the Smithsonian's National Zoo on Monday.
Sumatran tigers are a rare animal as they are listed as critically endangered according to the zoo. There are only 400 to 500 in the wild and there are 65 living in zoos in North America.
For female tiger, Damai, this is the first litter. The father is the zoo's male Sumatran tiger, Kavi.
While the public may be excited over the birth, the newborns will not be able to be seen by the public for several months as they must undergo many health examinations and get vaccinations. However the babies can be viewed on the zoo's live webcams, the Washington Post reports.
The newborns are expected to open their eyes in the next few weeks and will be able to move around better. The zoo says the cubs appear to be healthy right now and the mother has been taking good care of them and grooming
them. The cubs haven't been named yet.
Damai has been at the zoo since 2011 and she was joined by Kavi a year ago. Damai is 4 years old and the father is 12 years old. The pair mated several times over the last nine months and the zoo found that Damai was pregnant on June 21. The cubs were born at 6:14 p.m. and 8:23 p.m. on Monday as keepers watched the birth through a webcam.
"All I can do is smile," great cats curator Craig Saffoe told the Washington Post. "Because the team has realized our goal of producing critically endangered tiger cubs."
Sumatran tigers are a small species and weigh up to 300 pounds. A male Indian tiger can weigh up to twice that amount. Tigers live for about 20 years in a zoo, but many only live until 15 in the wild.
The cubs weigh about 2 pounds according to tiger keeper Leigh Pitsko. She says they look like a "little striped ball of fur. They're very cute. We're really excited.We put a lot of work into the breeding of these two tigers."
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
