The tiger cubs were born four months ago, there is a record of it in the zoo’s register and head office, officer Punjab Wildlife (Photo: Express).
Lahore: For the first time in Pakistan, the successful breeding of a Bengal tiger through hormonal therapy has been claimed in Bahawalpur Zoo. According to the authorities, an aged female tiger has given birth to four cubs. Not true, the tiger cubs were born at the end of January this year and the same female tiger has given birth to 3 healthy cubs in 2021.
Recently, the Punjab wildlife authorities claimed that a 32-year-old female tiger from Bahawalpur Zoo and a male tiger a few years older have been successfully bred through hormonal therapy. As a result, the female tiger named Rani gave birth to four cubs. has given birth and these four children are also girls and have been named Bubli, Maxi, Rosie and Jenny.
Curator of Bahawalpur Zoo, Dr. Tariq Mehmood, told “Express News” that this pair of tigers is very old, due to which they were not breeding here. So they used the hormonal therapy technique after which the female tiger has given birth to 4 cubs. He said that these are human hormones that increase the ability to produce children in males and females.
Dr. Tariq Mehmood said that he cannot say that in the future, the couple will have to undergo hormonal therapy to have children or that they will be able to have children naturally.
It is being considered as a big success by Punjab Wildlife, but when Express News investigated in this regard, doubts have arisen on this claim of Punjab Wildlife. According to research, the female tiger gave birth to four cubs at the end of January this year and they were born normally, while earlier in 2021, the same couple gave birth to three healthy cubs.
Express News contacted the veterinary experts of Lahore Zoo and Lahore Safari Zoo regarding the hormonal therapy technique, and they said that such a procedure is used abroad, but there is no example of it in Pakistan. . The experts also said that the use of hormonal therapy technique in Bahawalpur zoo came to be known from media reports.
Meanwhile, a senior officer of Punjab Wildlife confirmed that the tiger cubs were born four months ago and the record is available in the zoo’s register and head office.
It is also known that animals kept in zoos are subjected to unusual treatment or approval from higher authorities before any specific experiment, while these animals are tested by an accredited animal lab and any experiment is done after the recommendation of experts. Or the technique is used but no tests are done before hormonal therapy of male and female tigers and no approval is obtained from higher authorities.
The Express News investigation also raised the aspect that if cubs can be taken from aged male and female tigers through hormonal therapy, then why breeding was not done through hormonal therapy from male and female giraffes living in Bahawalpur Zoo for many years.
It should be noted that Lahore Zoo, which is an important zoo in Punjab, has housed a pair of rhinoceros and hippopotamus for many years. Because of the age difference between male and female, they could not produce children, but here too, hormonal therapy technique was not used.
The Deputy Director of Bahawalpur Region Syed Ali Usman was contacted several times to know from where and when these hormones were imported by the Bahawalpur Zoo administration, but he did not respond.
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