Another animal has died at a Danish zoo, but this time the death was apparently accidental. Zookeepers at Aalborg Zoo found Mai-Mai, the zoo’s seven-month-old tiger cub, lying dead in the tiger enclosure
The rare Sumatran tiger cub was accidentally strangled while she played with a bag-like toy designed to keep her active while inside the cage.
“It’s very sad,” Aalborg Zoo chief zoologist Jens Sigsgaard told Ekstra Bladet newspaper. “We have never had this kind of accident before and we are taking precautions to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Sigsgaard said that the cub accidentally got her head caught in a noose holding the bag and twisted around and around until she strangled herself.
“She needed stimulation, partially because she was an only child and didn’t have anyone else to play with,” said Sigsgaard.
Rare breed
Mai-Mai’s mother is very unhappy at the loss of the cub she was still nursing.
“She cannot understand where her cub has gone,” said Sigsgaard.
Kim and Batu, Mai-Mai’s parents, have now been placed in the same cage.
“It gives them something else to think about,” said Sigsgaard, who says the chances of the two mating again are good.
READ MORE: Copenhagen Zoo's baby rhino due January
Mia-Mai was the first Sumatran tiger bred in captivity in Denmark.
There are believed to be only 400-600 Sumatran tigers left in the wild.
