• Donate
  • Volunteer
  • Contact Us
  • Donate
  • Volunteer
  • Contact Us
Search
Close this search box.
Facebook-f Instagram Youtube
mobilebcr
  • Get Involved
  • Cub Facts
  • The Sanctuary Cats
  • FAQs
  • Contact Us
  • Shop
  • Videos
  • Donate
Menu
  • Get Involved
  • Cub Facts
  • The Sanctuary Cats
  • FAQs
  • Contact Us
  • Shop
  • Videos
  • Donate
Home News World

Why Big Cats Kill Their Cubs

BCR by BCR
December 12, 2011
in News World
253
1
US Chemical Killing Off Wild Lions

US Chemical Killing Off Wild Lions

224
SHARES
4.5k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare via Email

Are they bad mothers for abandoning, injuring, or even killing their newborns?

 

US Chemical Killing Off Wild Lions
Zoos are no place for mother cats to raise cubs

Take Aurora, the popular female polar bear at the Toronto zoo, for example. She killed two of her cubs in October, and had a third one taken away by zoo staff for hand-rearing to prevent a similar fate. She did the same thing the year prior, killing two of her cubs at birth by partially eating them.

 

It is well known that males will attack or eat their young and others, but mothers failing to care for their young, and animal infanticide in general is a touchy, almost taboo subject for major zoos, including Toronto’s. After all it doesn’t exactly drive attendance.

 

Yet it’s a phenomenon staff deal with and one that can be traumatizing for zookeepers, say Toronto zoo officials.

 

“It’s not uncommon, even with domestic animals. Some mothers just aren’t good (at being) mothers,” explains Dr. Graham Crawshaw, the Toronto zoo’s senior veterinarian.

 

“Anyone who works with wild animals knows this isn’t uncommon or a reflection on this zoo, or zoos generally. It’s animals. Some animals do better than others. You can’t predict,” explained Crawshaw, who was reticent to discuss the issue with the Star.

 

Infanticide in the wild is common and occurs for a variety of reasons, says Mark Fitzpatrick assistant professor in the biology department at the University of Toronto, and an expert in animal behaviour, mating and aggression.

 

For example, in the case of lions, a new male might take over a pride and kill all the offspring.

 

“That will reset all the females into estrous, and he can maximize his reproductive success by mating with those females. That sort of scenario also happens with Colobine monkeys,’’ says Fitzpatrick.

 

But such behaviour is typically driven by male aggression, he says.

 

“Males are more likely to do the killing. With females it’s less common,” Fitzpatrick says.

 

One theory found in scientific literature on parental infanticide suggests it’s part of “normal’’ maternal behaviour where a female can adjust her litter size to suit her ability to raise offspring. Or, as Fitzpatrick notes, the female may do it because she simply wants to mate with a new male.

 

Animal rights activists charge that captivity is a major source of anxiety causing females to destroy their young.

 

“I think it’s fair to say that in most cases of infanticide, it’s related to stressors, whether it’s in the wild or in captivity,’’ says Zoocheck Canada director Julie Woodyer.

 

She says zoos claim that when the keep animals in captivity they’ve removed “stressors’’ that animals would face in the wild, such as lack of food.

 

“One of the primary reasons polar bears would kill their own cubs in the wild is because there isn’t enough food even for them to eat,’’ says Woodyer.

 

But this problem doesn’t exist in captivity, she says, yet moms such as Aurora are still experiencing difficulties rearing offspring, Woodyer notes.

 

“Once you remove those stressors these problems shouldn’t exist, but they do because zoos have created different kinds of stressors for the animals because they haven’t evolved to cope in that small environment. Polar bears are wide ranging carnivores that don’t do well when you confine them,’’ Woodyer argues.

 

To learn more about infanticide and maternal care issues with polar bears, the Toronto zoo is collecting the animals’ fecal and urine samples and trying to get a handle on their reproductive cycles and pregnancy.

 

Toronto is working with other zoos, which in turn are collaborating with biologists and researchers working in the wild. There are challenges however to studying maternal care in the wild because of the secretive nature of den sites for polar bears and other species.

 

Crawshaw argues one theory cannot fully explain infanticide and failure to rear issues involving females. He believes it’s largely tied to the disposition of the individual creature.

 

To make his point he describes the unusual maternal care case with Nokanda, the late female white lion who abandoned six of her cubs.

 

On two separate occasions she abandoned her newborns immediately after zoo staff separated them from her to do veterinary checks to ensure the offspring were healthy.

 

“(The first time) we put them back with her … she never touched the cubs again … She didn’t want anything to do with them. That was enough disturbance for her,’’ explains Crawshaw.

 

Zoo staff have separated moms from their cubs — other lions, tigers, cheetahs etc. — and those moms were absolutely fine once their pups were returned, he says.

 

In the second batch the following year, Toronto zoo staff waited 10 weeks before vaccinating the other set of Nokanda’s cubs — she’d been a good mother to them up to that point.

 

“We took them out, gave them their shots, checked them out (but) she never touched them again. That was that animal. We had to feed them. Now they’re big strapping animals.

 

“Again, each animal is different,’’ says Crawshaw.

 

As for Aurora, she was an inexperienced mom the first time she had babies, Crawshaw said, and was in an unfamiliar environment in the zoo’s new enclosure.

 

Aurora came to the zoo in 2001 after she and sister Nikita, both cubs at the time, were found wandering the wilderness alone, their mom apparently shot by a hunter. They were loaned to a polar bear habitat in Northern Ontario, and returned to Toronto in 2009.

 

In the past the zoo has had other polar bears who failed to raise their young, staff say.

 

Troubled mothers at the Toronto Zoo

 

• Female polar bear Aurora killed two of her cubs in October and had a third one taken away. She did the same thing in 2010, killing two newborn cubs.

 

• Tatiana, a Siberian tiger, gave birth to two cubs in 2000. One was found dead, the other alive but missing a leg that had been bitten off by mom. The cub was euthanized.

 

• Nokanda, a female white lion that passed away this summer, gave birth to four cubs in 1999 and two the following year, and abandoned all of them. Three in the first litter died, and one needed to be hand-reared. Two in the second litter required hand-rearing.

 

• Erin, a Himalayan tahr (wild goat), abandoned one of her two surviving babies, which needed to be hand-reared.

 

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1100493–when-moms-kill-their-young

Tags: cubs
Previous Post

Today at Big Cat Rescue Dec 11 Big Cat Fundraiser

Next Post

Today at Big Cat Rescue Dec 12

Related Posts

Bird Flu Detected in Two Oregon Mountain Lions
News World

Bird Flu Detected in Two Oregon Mountain Lions

March 31, 2023

In a news release on March 28 the California Department of Fish and...

Close encounter of a leopard kind: Rare BLACK leopard captured without help from camera trap
News World

Close encounter of a leopard kind: Rare BLACK leopard captured without help from camera trap

March 31, 2023

Stunning shots have emerged of a rare black panther in Laikipia, Kenya.It...

Turpentine Creek merging with Baskin’s Big Cat Rescue from ‘Tiger King’
News World

Turpentine Creek merging with Baskin’s Big Cat Rescue from ‘Tiger King’

March 30, 2023

EUREKA SPRINGS, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — A personality from the hit Netflix docuseries...

Next Post

Today at Big Cat Rescue Dec 12

Leave a Reply

  • Facebook Comments
  • Default Comments (1)

One response to “Why Big Cats Kill Their Cubs”

  1. Lioness Eats Her Two Newborn Cubs at German Zoo: 'This Is a Kind of Natural Behavior' says:
    August 8, 2019 at 11:04 am

    […] eating their cubs isn’t unheard of, and can be sparked by a number of reasons, according to Big Cat Rescue, an accredited sanctuary that rescues abused and abandoned big […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Help Feed Big Cats

One of the best ways to help is through general donations that can be used however it is most needed at the time.To make a general donation just click the Donate Now button below.  This is the best way to give as it has the lowest credit card processing fees and is immediate help for the cats.

Give to Big Cat Rescue

If you prefer to donate via Pay Pal, please use this link: Pay Pal

Recent Articles

  • Bird Flu Detected in Two Oregon Mountain Lions March 31, 2023
  • Close encounter of a leopard kind: Rare BLACK leopard captured without help from camera trap March 31, 2023
  • Turpentine Creek merging with Baskin’s Big Cat Rescue from ‘Tiger King’ March 30, 2023

Recent Comments

  • Deb Quimby on Moving
  • Wilson on Moving
  • BCR on Moving
  • BCR on Moving
  • Donna Coffey on Moving

Big Cat Rescue is accredited by the Global Federation of Sanctuaries

We are Certified by Independent Charities of America as a “Best in America Charity”

About Us

  • Big Cat Rescue Live 24/7 on Webcams
  • Rescue Missions
  • About Big Cat Rescue
  • Reviews
  • Our Recent Work
  • Sanctuary FAQs
  • Big Cat TV

Cats

  • Jaguars
  • Leopards
  • Lions
  • Tigers
  • Bobcats
  • Canada Lynx
  • Cougars
  • Ocelots
  • Savannah Cats
  • Servals

Big cats may be the King of Beasts, but without you they can’t survive.

© Copyright 2023 BigCatRescue.Org. All Rights Reserved.

Facebook-f Youtube Instagram
Cleantalk Pixel

Add New Playlist

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.