The Minnesota Zoo’s newborn Amur tiger cub
Courtesy Minnesota Zoo
She’s a handful – but she’s got that newborn baby glow.
This 5-day-old Amur tiger cub was one of two born at the Minnesota Zoo on Father’s Day, June 17, to first-time mother Angara. Keepers left the cubs with Angara overnight, and while she wasn’t aggressive toward her young, she didn’t seem know what to do with them.
“She was just a little bit intimidated or confused, in human terms,” the zoo’s Northern Trail supervisor, Diana Weinhardt, tells PEOPLE. Only one of the cubs survived, and the zoo decided to hand-raise the animal.
In the days since, the tiger has been exhibiting typical cub-like behavior: “She eats, she sleeps, she pees, she poops,” Weinhardt says. “She can sniff out her bottle already! Once she smells it she locks in on it.”
After a few more days, the cub’s eyes should open, but she’s already responding to voices and sounds. She’s also growing and gaining weight, and “heading in a very positive direction.”
In the wild, tiger cubs stay with their mothers for up to two years, but this cub may leave the nest a little sooner. Because the zoo likes to raise baby animals with others of the same species, this tiger may end up heading to a different zoological facility in the near future.
“We want to do what’s best for her,” Weinhardt says. “She needs to learn to be a tiger and that’s the bottom line.”
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