Odisha zoo welcomes two melanistic tiger cubs

Bhubaneswar: Here’s good news for wildlife lovers as two melanistic tiger cubs were born at Nandankanan Zoological Park (NZP) here today.

The Royal Bengal tigress Renuka delivered two melanistic cubs. Both the tigress and her newborns have been kept under CCTV surveillance, the NZP authorities said.

According to reports, the zoo authorities had made arrangements for mating between the tigress Renuka and tiger Samrat inside the enclosure for increasing the tiger population. While the first cub was born at 3.40 am, the Royal Bengal tigress gave birth to another cub in the afternoon.

However, the gender of the newborns is yet to be identified.

With birth of two new cubs, the tiger population in the zoo rose to 28 including nine white and 4 melanistic.