Dog adopts tiger cubs

A CHINESE dog has become the surrogate mother of tiger triplets born at a zoo in the country's eastern Shandong province. The mongrel bitch called Huani is suckling the tiger cubs, rather unimaginatively named One, Two and Three by staff at Jinan Paomaling Wild Animal World, because their mother rejected them shortly after birth just over two weeks ago.



A spokeswoman for London Zoo said staff try to match an abandoned animal with a mother of the same species with young of a similar age where possible.

The spokeswoman said it was preferable for the abandoned cub to imprint - the process by which an animal learns the characteristics of its parents - on a four-legged animal rather than a human being.