VIDEO: Rare Sumatran Tiger Gives Birth to Twins

Footage captures Australia Zoo’s Sumatran Tiger, Kaitlyn, giving birth to not one, but two male tigers. Viewers get the rare opportunity to witness the labor and delivery process. This is a remarkable story, as the Sumatran tiger is an endangered species.

According to Wikipedia, it has been listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List in 2008 as the population was estimated at 441 to 679 individuals, with no subpopulation larger than 50 individuals and a declining trend. The Sumatran tiger is the only surviving member of the Sunda Islands group of tigers that included the now extinct Bali tiger and Javan tiger. Sequences from complete mitochondrial genes of 34 tigers support the hypothesis that Sumatran tigers are diagnostically distinct from mainland populations.

Major threats to this species include habitat loss due to expansion of palm oil plantations and planting of acacia plantations, prey-base depletion, and illegal trade primarily for the domestic market.

On 3 February 2014, three Sumatran tiger cubs were born to a five-year-old tigress in London Zoo’s Tiger Territory, a £3.6m facility to encourage endangered subspecies of tiger to breed.

On 26 June 2016, two tiger cubs were born at London Zoo after a 108-day pregnancy, the first cub was delivered at 9:19 am, and the second shortly after at 10:02 am.

Read Kaitlyn’s full story below, provided by The San Francisco Globe.

Any birth is amazing, but add in the fact that the Sumatran tiger is an endangered species and the birth is of twins, and you have a remarkable story. Footage captures Australia Zoo’s Sumatran Tiger, Kaitlyn, as she gives birth to not one, but two twin male tigers. Viewers get the rare opportunity to witness the labor and delivery process.

The zoo staff sees firsthand the precious moments when a tiger cub takes its first breath after being stimulated by his mother’s licking. The video depicts those moments of uncertainty as the zoo supervisor, Giles Clark, refrains from helping Kaitlyn. Clark said, “I feel like I should get in there and give her a hand.”

However, the staff is all too aware that the tiger mother must do this on her own. After a few moments, the cub is breathing regularly and cries out. The simple sound of life brings cheers of joy from the viewers. The next cub comes out kicking and much more noisy than his brother which is very much welcomed from the anxious crowd.

The birth of the cubs is amazing for many reasons. Not only are the cubs the first to be born at this Australia Zoo, but their birth means great things on a much larger scale. According to Australia Zoo, Clark said, “Not only will these cubs ensure the survival of the species in captivity, but they will also provide genetic diversity among captive tiger populations. The cubs’ wild bloodline is an important factor. These cubs are possibly the most significant births for the program in recent history.”

As of right now, there are only about 500 Sumatran Tigers in the world so this birth certainly means a a significant increase in the population in the future.

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