Orphaned Tiger makes friends with goat kept in his cage as food!!
A Bengal tiger cub was rescued in 2009 from the Dhaba forest range in India. He had been left orphaned after the disappearance of its mother. The cub named Bhangaram, was then raised by the keepers of Bor Wildlife Sanctuary.
Orphaned Tiger makes friends with goat kept in his cage as food!! #Love #AnimalRights Click To Tweet
They were hoping that one day, they could release him into the wild and he could take care of his life there.
But the way things have turned out, their hopes have been completely dashed. And this became clear when they released a live goat into his enclosure with the hope that his killing instinct will arise and he will kill the goat and eat.
(keepers) they hoped the beast would make a quick kill. To their astonishment and horror, the tiger instead decided to make friends with its intended meal.
For two days, the tiger did not kill the goat despite being hungry. Instead it played with it; at one point even playfully dumping it in an artificial waterhole. Finally, the goat was shifted out and the tiger was given beef to eat. Officials who watched the sequence of events in dismay are hunting for answers to explain the animal’s behaviour. They are worried that having been raised in captivity, the big cat may have lost its hunting skills.
Imagine the tiger – full grown male at that – befriends the live goat himself!! What do you do with that kind of animal??
A conservationist says it may be that male tigers lack the killing instinct these days!
“I fear the male tiger is not fit for release,” says veteran conservationist MS Chouhan. “When the females were rescued they had killed a dog and it seems they still had some hunting skills, but in the case of the male they are evidently missing.”
The times have indeed changed! 🙂
featured image credit: Tambako the Jaguar/CC BY 2.0
