Tragic incident: Mother tiger accidentally kills three newborn tiger cubs on Bengal safari | News from Kolkata

SILIGURI/KOLKATA: Three royal Bengal tiger cubs died at Bengal Safari Apparently in Siliguri, following “accidental bites” by their mother, zoo officials said.
Rika, the tigress, gave birth to three cubs last week, which were kept in a shelter for the night. However, while trying to move her cubs by picking them up with her mouth, she accidentally bit their necks. The cubs died of their injuries, state zoological authority member secretary Sourav Chowdhury said.
Park director Vijay Kumar said, “The deaths occurred due to an unintentional bite. A well is open.”
This was six-year-old Rika’s second litter. In early 2023, she had also “accidentally” bitten her first litter. But the little ones were then a month old and could be saved by the zoo authorities.
Experts say that while such incidents are very rare in the wild, they are common in captivity because the animals are not exposed to the natural world and often fail to pick up reflexes such as the “fake bite” used to transport chicks. In 2019, a jaguar cub died at Kolkata’s Alipore Zoo after a similar “accidental” bite to its mother. In 2023, a leopard killed and ate its three cubs at Jhargram Zoo. Earlier this month, a “confused” cheetah mother in Kuno National Park is suspected of unintentionally killing her two newborn cubs.
Wildlife Trust of India chief veterinarian NVK Ashraf said anxiety and lack of exposure to nature combine to make animals behave this way in captivity. “A big cat like a tiger should know its strength, but due to lack of exposure to the wild, it fails to learn the art of feigned bite. Therefore, such incidents are not uncommon in captivity,” he added.
Assistant director of animal resource development department, Jhargram, Chanchal Dutta, said if such incidents continue to recur, the reasons should be explored. “There is no scientific explanation as to why animals do this, but after the leopard incident at Jhargram zoo, I observed the mother’s behavior and felt the fear of losing the cub and the appetite for protein-rich food during pregnancy might be possible factors. So the next time she gave birth, we offered her food every day of the week, restricted the movement of the garden guards near her enclosure and monitored the mother and cubs through CCTV.” Dutta added. Ashraf also said that zoos should make proper arrangements so that animals do not have to move their cubs regularly within their enclosure.
Tigress Rika and her sister Kika (a white tiger), both named by CM Mamata Banerjee, were born in captivity at the Bengal Safari and have leg defects since birth. Officials said one of Kika’s cubs died last year due to inadequate nursing by the mother.
Wildlife enthusiast and photographer Nirmalya Chakraborty said a tiger killing and eating her cubs is very rare in the wild. “A mother in the wild may only eat a weak chick after its death to get rid of the odor around her den, which can make the surviving litter vulnerable to other predators. She will never kill him,” he added.