The Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden welcomed three Malayan tiger cubs Friday and is caring for the them in the zoo's nursery.
The mother tiger, three-year-old Cinta, rejected the cubs, which vets said is not unusual for a first-time birth.
“It’s not uncommon for first-time tiger moms not to know what to do,” Mike Delaney, the zoo’s curator of mammals, said.
“Nursery staff is keeping them warm and feeding them every three hours.”
The cubs come from a genetically valuable tiger line. They will eventually help keep the Malayan tiger population in the 28 zoos that care for the subspecies genetically diverse.
It’s estimated that there are fewer than 500 Malayan tigers left in the wild.
Habitat destruction, fragmentation and poaching are the main reasons for the decline of the Malayan tiger.