National Geographic: Photo in the News: Dog Nurses Tiger Cubs in China

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http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/05/0509_050905_dogtigers.html

 

Photo in the News: Dog Nurses Tiger Cubs in China

 

May 9, 2005-Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks? The

mother of these tiger cubs couldn't produce enough milk, so

zookeepers in Hefei, China, enlisted this dog. She began work when

the cubs were one day old, on May 2, when this picture was taken.

This isn't the first time a dog has played wet nurse to tigers at the

Hefei zoo, which organized a similar arrangement with another dog

last year.

 

It may not even be the oddest recent example of cross-species

suckling. As of February, India's Namatia Ghosh, 46, was still

breastfeeding the pet monkey her husband found orphaned several years

ago. " He is my son, " she told BBC News. Not to be outdone, Hlah Htay,

40, helped a Burmese zoo feed two tiger cubs in April, according to

the AFP news service. The cubs had been separated from their

aggressive mother.

 

Tigers are born toothless. In the wild they nurse for about six

months but begin eating meat after six to eight weeks, when the

mother begins sharing her kills.

 

-Ted Chamberlain

 

Photograph from China Newsphoto/Reuters/Corbis

 

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