Tragedy struck at the Dula Hazra Safari Park in Cox’s Bazar as a tigress lost three cubs in the span of two days, supposedly for her lack of experience in the wilderness.
Among the three cubs, two died on Saturday near their mother and one died yesterday at the hospital, sources at the Forest Department said.
The authorities concerned have yet to find a plausible reason behind the sudden death of the newborn cubs, but they suspect their mother's inexperience of the wild may be a reason.
“The newborn cubs died because their mother could not provide proper care,” Tapan Kumar Dey, the conservator of forest (wildlife), said.
Jui is a rescue tigress, along with her siblings Jyoti and Joy, who were rescued as cubs themselves by a team of Rapid Action Battalion from poachers in June 2012. They have been living at the safari park ever since.
She gave birth to the cubs on Tuesday.
Tiger expert Monirul H Khan said: “Jui never experienced her mother’s care, which is why she could not care for her own cubs. Her inexperience of growing up in an environment suited for her kind contributed to her failure in rearing her cubs, which may have caused their death.”