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Tiger cubs born in Indonesia breeding center
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In Indonesia, a breeding center is celebrating the birth of Sumatran tiger cubs. The birth is the first at the breeding center this year.
Wild Sumatran tiger mother, Desy, is part of the center's extensive breeding program, to ensure the survival of the species.
Desy is considered a good breeder because she has had a series of successful pregnancies in the past.
She is also well known for nursing her cubs after their birth.
Ligaya Ita Tumbelaka, Studbook Keeper, said, "Tiger conservation outside of their habitat must be managed. Due to conflicts in their natural habitat, troubled tigers are often captured and killed. It is better to bring them to a breeding center."
Last weekend, Desy gave birth to three healthy cubs, exactly 100 days into her term.
She is seen nursing and playing with her offspring inside the delivery cage.
Ligaya Ita Tumbelaka, Studbook Keeper, said, "If the tiger population in the wild diminishes because of illegal trade, habitat fragmentation and forest conversion where these tigers live, there may be a need for Sumatran tigers to be released to the wild. The breeding center already has a reservoir of tigers which can be released into the wild."
The Sumatran tiger is the world's most endangered tiger subspecies.
Experts say that poaching and destruction of the forest habitat, often to make way for plantations, have reduced the Sumatran tiger population to only a few hundred left in the wild.
The Indonesian government and non-governmental groups have set up a special forum to manage tiger conservation.
And earlier this year, a number of Asian nations and Russia vowed to double the number of wild tigers by 2022, and crack down on poaching and habitat destruction.
