China cub births boost chances for endangered Siberian tiger
Eighty-four Siberian tiger cubs have been born in captivity in northeast China since March this year in a boost to the survival chances of the endangered species, state media reported Sunday.
All the cubs were doing well, Liu Dan, an official with the Hengdaohezi Feline Breeding Centre in Heilongjiang province, told Xinhua nws agency,
Liu said 13 other pregnant Siberian tigers would give birth to between 20 and 30 new cubs before October.
The centre, established in 1986, holds 750 Siberian tigers and plans to release 620 of them into the wild in the future, he said.
The Siberian tiger, also known as Amur, Manchurian or Ussuri tiger, is among the 10 most endangered species in the world. Only 400 survive in the wild, about 20 in northern China and the rest in the Russian Far East, the report added.
[via AFP]