GERMANY: Zoo is home to three rare "ligers," cats of prey born to a tiger mother and a lion father
- 00:00:14
- ITN Source
GERMANY: Zoo is home to three rare "ligers," cats of prey born to a tiger mother and a lion father
In 1984, keepers at "Noah's Ark" zoo in the town of Groemitz on the Baltic Sea coast decided to put two young lions and one young tiger into the same enclosure where the animals soon befriended each other. Three years later, according to the zoo, the lions mated, producing healthy offspring. The female tiger remained childless but in winter of 1989/1990, zoo keepers noticed that the female tiger was pregnant. She gave birth to three ligers, one of which died "Ligers never look like tigers and never look like lions," the zoo's director, Ingo Wilhelm said. "Rather, they always look the way we see them here, with moderate stripes. Some have larger stripes, which are better visible when the animals are young. Once the animals grow older, the stripes gradually disappear," Wilhelm said. In Berlin, two young elks born some seven weeks ago had their first photo session. Four-year-old elk mother Beta gave birth to male elk Lars on May Sixteen days later, Pippi, a female elk baby was born to three-year-old elk mother Susi. Their keeper, Claudia Walther said that "elks are normally loners but here they live in a group of three, together with the children, and it's working out fine." Although the elks look like twins -- no rarity, as Berlin zoo points out -- they were born 16 days apart.
ITN Source | July 19, 2007
