Four Extremely Rare Golden Tiger Cubs Born In China Zoo

A zoo in China has welcomed the arrival of four extremely rare golden tiger cubs. You can watch them being precious here:

The cubs - three females and one male - were born on 19 October at Taihu Lake Longemont Paradise, an amusement park featuring a zoo in Huzhou, in the eastern Zhejiang Province.

In a social media post, the zoo said: "The golden tiger is a mutant tiger species produced by the genetic mutation of the Bengal tiger.

"The breeding rate is lower than that of their close relatives, the white tiger and the snow tiger, and there are fewer of them than pandas."

The cubs are being given round-the-clock care by zookeepers, as their first-time parent has yet to show affection towards her children due to a lack of maternal experience, according to The Daily Mail.

Taihu Lake Longemont Paradise

Taihu Lake Longemont Paradise

Taihu Lake Longemont Paradise

To be fair though, there are much more fraught mother-child relationships out there in the world of big cats.

Last year, Leipzig Zoo in Germany was celebrating after a lioness gave birth to two cubs - the first time cubs had been born there in 15 years.

However, the happy development was well and truly ruined when the mum, Kigali, inexplicably decided to eat them.

In a statement, the zoo said: "Our two lion cubs are dead. We are shocked and sad. Until last night Kigali had done everything right and looked after her first offspring.

"The lioness and her puppy evidently did well. Also in the evening hours yesterday, the inexperienced mother cared for her boys, before she suddenly ate the two young animals during grooming one after the other completely.

"An autopsy and thus examination of the juveniles can not take place because of this.

"Kigali makes a calm impression today and had already eaten regularly during the day yesterday. She initially remains in the rear, before she leaves the mother's room in the coming days and is re-socialised with the cat Majo."

Leipzig Zoo/Facebook

Maren Huck, a lecturer in animal behavioural ecology at the University of Derby, said lionesses do sometimes eat their cubs in the wild, although it is a more frequent occurrence in captivity.

Speaking to CNN, she said: "If the cubs themselves behave strangely, that might be a reason for animals to eat their offspring.

"If their infant doesn't respond as an infant should do, it's not recognised as an infant and therefore the maternal instinct doesn't kick in.

"It is more likely in captivity because there are more factors that would contribute. It is well known that if animals in captivity are stressed, they are more likely to eat their cubs.

"On the other hand, they're less likely to be malnourished in a zoo. In the wild, if a female isn't fit enough herself, she is more likely to eat her cubs."

So there you have it, every day's a school day.

Sorry though if you clicked on this for the cute cubs and have ended up with this sad tale of infanticide. Things took a dark turn.

Just scroll back to the pictures.

Topics: Awesome, Animals, Cats, China

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey