Extremely rare! White Bengal Tiger sextuplets born in China's Zhengzhou zoo

People in China will soon up t to meet extremely rare white tiger sextuplets cubs. The cubs were born to a white Bengal tiger named Jingjing at Enjoyland Conservation and Education Centre, a local animal theme park in China in Zhengzhou, Henan province.

What makes them special is that white tigers only deliver up to four offspring at a time. The litter of six cubs is an extremely rare occurrence, China Daily said in a report.

Of the six cubs, there are two males and four females, it reported.

White Bengal Tigers or the White Tigers are a variation of the better-known orange Bengal tigers. Their colouration is due to a genetic defect.

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The defective gene is passed on from parents to cubs. 

As per a Zhengzhou Daily report, a worker at Enjoyland said the species has a hard time surviving in the wild due to its lack of protective colouring. 

White tigers are extremely rare and endangered. In China, the species enjoys the status of a first-class national protected animal.

The birth of six cubs at a time is very rare and has thus made their rearing and caretaking a huge challenge for the zookeepers. 

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Xu Fu, head of the Animal Management Department of the zoo, told CCTV that "white tiger sextuplets are rarely seen. For the tiger mother, if she takes care of her cubs by herself, she will be stressed out. Therefore, we immediately adopted the method of artificial breeding. We took the six cubs to the nursery, and our nursery staff then acted as human parents to take care of them."

They have come up with a special parenting plan to take care of the white tiger sextuplets. They are using an incubator with a constant temperature of 26 degree celcius to make it easier for the mother tiger to bring up her babies. 

Additionally, zookeepers take care of the cubs around the clock; they are weighed every day, zookeepers feed them milk once every two hours, and they also massage the cubs' abdomens every day to help with digestion and excretion.

(With inputs from agencies)

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