Zookeepers Shuffled After Tiger Cub Dies

By Margaret Lyons in Miscellaneous on Oct 9, 2007 6:45PM

All kinds of Cubs croaked this weekend. The male tiger cub at the Brookfield Zoo died coming out of anesthesia on Sunday, and now his caretakers have been "reassigned," according to the Trib. The USDA cited the zoo for improperly separating the cubs and their mother from their father; the gate separating the encloses had a gap in it, and the boy tiger stuck his paw through.

The father, which in the wild would have no recognition of its offspring and no part in raising them, apparently bit off the male cub's right front leg up to its elbow. The cubs' 12-year-old mother, Tiara, frantic to pull the youngsters away from the father, chomped so hard that she amputated large parts of their tails.

The zoo's internal investigation concluded that "a questionable staff evaluation had been made of the cubs’ ability to interact with the adult male," hence the zookeeper changes.

Wondering why the cubs don't have names yet? Maybe their private donors haven't come through. And we don't know which cub is which in that photo, so the halo could be over the wrong one.