London Zoo staff were reeling today after a newborn Sumatran tiger cub was found drowned.
Five-year-old Sumatran tiger Melati gave birth to the cub on 22 September after a six-minute labour that was captured on hidden cameras in the den.
The cub, which had not yet been not yet named or sexed as it was so young, was the first tiger to be born at the zoo for 17 years.
On Saturday, zookeepers could not see the cub on the den cameras and its body was later discovered on the edge of a pool inside the enclosure.
A post-mortem test, conducted on Sunday, confirmed the cub had drowned.
The cub was the grandchild of the zoo’s last tiger cub, Hari, the father of Melati.
London Zoo’s Malcolm Fitzpatrick said: “We’re heartbroken by what’s happened.
“To go from the excitement of the birth to this in three weeks is just devastating.”
He added: “Melati can be a very nervous animal and we didn’t want to risk putting her on edge by changing her surroundings or routines, in case she abandoned or attacked the cub.
“At the time we thought it was in the best interests of Melati and her cub to allow her continued access to the full enclosure as normal.
“We would do anything to turn back the clock and nobody could be more upset about what’s happened than the keepers who work with the tigers every day.
“They are devoted to those tigers and are distraught.”
The cub was born six months after the opening of the “tiger territory”, designed to encourage the endangered sub-species of tiger to breed.
