Forwarded to me by a reader—
In a zoo in California, a mother tiger gave birth to a rare set of triplet tiger cubs. Unfortunately, due to complications in the pregnancy, the cubs were born prematurely and due to their tiny size, they died shortly after birth.
The mother tiger after recovering from the delivery suddenly started to decline in health, although physically she was fine. The veterinarians felt that the loss of her litter had caused the tigress to fall into a depression. The doctors decided that if the tigress could surrogate another mother’s cubs, perhaps she would improve.
After checking with many other zoos across the country, the depressing news was that there were no tiger cubs of the right age to introduce to the mourning mother.
The veterinarians decided to try something that had never been tried in a zoo environment. Sometimes a mother of one species will take on the care of a different species. The only “orphans” that could be found quickly were a litter of wiener pigs. The zoo keepers and vets wrapped the piglets in tiger skin and placed the babies around the mother tiger.
Would they become cubs or pork chops??
Take a look……..
When I saw the above pictures, I couldn’t help but see the universal mothering presence of God in the love the tigress shows for the little pigs.
To Love, all is love, and what a wonderful world we’d have if we all expressed the same type of unqualified love toward our neighbor whether they were of our “kin” or not!
Oh my gosh..this is amazing…as one very blessed adoptive mom…I can tell you that the joy that mama tiger feels fills her even more than all the milk those piggies are being blessed by…I think this is one of my favorite mothering images ever!!!
all love,
Kate
I love it! That’s so precious. There’s something about the love expressed by our furry friends that is really special. I’m saving those lovely pictures and plan to share. Thanks so much Evan.
Peggy
To Peggy,
You are welcome! They are adorable…
The question that begs to be asked is whether the outcome would have been the same if the tiger skins had NOT been placed on the piggies.
Snopes.com has a report on the tigress pictured with the piglets. Apparently this charming scene was part of an exhibit designed to entertain visitors at a zoo in Thailand — not an effort to improve the health of a depressed tigress in California — but interspecies snorgling is still heartwarming. Especially when it involves piglets in tiger suits. 🙂
Snopes reports that this particular zoo often puts unexpected species together in its exhibits: The tigress in question was nursed by a sow when she was a cub.
Animals seem to be good at accepting one another. When I was a kid, our Chihuahua mix was firmly convinced that he was the father of our cat’s kittens — and a prouder daddy you’ve never seen — and Animal Planet used to run a hilarious (if slightly disturbing) video of a pit bull attempting to nurse a budgerigar.
I think my favorite stories are the primates — like Koko, the gorilla who gained fame for learning sign language and adopting a kitten, and Binti Jua, the gorilla who rescued a child who had fallen into her enclosure at the Brookfield Zoo.
I love stories about animals expressing Love in spite of their differences. If nothing else, they serve to show us the possibilities….
Hey Emily,
Thanks for enlightening us on further details. I figured there was more to the story…
Hugs,