Mother Nature steps up to save lives of rare abandoned tiger cubs

TWO rare cubs born to a male lion and a female tiger in China are being nursed by a dog after they were abandoned by their mother.

Xixiakou Wildlife Zoo in eastern China said four cubs, called ligers, were born to the lion and tiger recently.

The tiger mother fed the cubs for four days, but abandoned them for unknown reasons. Two died of weakness. Staff at the zoo in Shandong province found a dog who had just given birth to feed the surviving cubs.

A zoo spokeswoman said the two cubs had trouble at first drinking milk from the dog but are now used to it.

Ligers are rare and are sometimes bred in zoos by mistake.