New Delhi, June 16: Cruelty to fellow beings is not the exclusive preserve of humans. Sometimes, animals can be cruel to members of their own species, cannibalism being an extreme manifestation of this kind of behaviour.
It is this kind of behaviour by a female jaguar that recently deprived the National Zoological Park in the capital of two cubs of the same species. One cub was killed and eaten by his own mother minutes after his birth. The other one was rescued by an alert animal-keeper. But unfortunately, he too could not survive for long.
The cub was kept under what zoo authorities call hand rearing, but in vain. His urinary tract got infected. "Despite our best possible efforts, he couldn't be saved," Dr N Panneer Selvam, senior zoo veterinarian, said.
This is the third time in the recent past when this female jaguar, now five-and-a-half years old, has killed her own offspring ruthlessly. On the two earlier occasions, she had almost devoured her kids when the animal authorities came to know about the incident.
This time round the zoo authorities claimed to have taken all precautionary measures to ensure she doesn't lay her eyes on the cubs. Yet she managed to finish one of the cubs, while the other one was rescued from her jaw.



"Since we have saved cubs through hand-rearing in the past, we had thought that we would be able to save the jaguar cub too. Initially, he was doing very well. He used to have between two and four bottles of milk everyday," Dr Selvam said.



Separating a cub from its mother and bringing it up successfully is something the zoo authorities are no stranger to. They have saved Karan, a Royal Bengal tiger, through hand-rearing. "Since his mother, Kunti, was not showing any interest in the cub, we immediately separated him from her and he was brought up by us," he said. Now Karan has hit the prime of his youth, and is the proud father of four healthy children.



Similarly, the zoo authorities had to put in their best possible efforts to bring up Saraswati, a lioness and now mother of three children. "Her condition was not very good when separated from Anita, her mother.



The chances of her survival were very thin, but our sincere efforts finally bore fruit and she was saved," Dr Selvam said.



Terming cannibalism as common behaviour in the big cats, Dr A K Malhotra, zoo curator, said: "Even in the past, the cubs have been killed and eaten by the mothers minutes after they were born. The animal-keepers are put on high alert when the delivery time approaches."



The zoo had been gifted a pair of male and female jaguars by the government of Sri Lanka four years back. Since then, they had been the centre of attraction for every zoo visitor. "We want to have a few more jaguars in the zoo, as they are not found in any Asian or European countries," Dr Selvam said. Jaguars are only found in South America. Dr Selvam, however, claimed that they haven't yet lost hope. "At the moment, we have put the male and female (the parents of the unfortunate cubs) on rest. They will be crossed after two months," he said. Till then, they will have to live in two different cages.