Tuesday

A wonderful story has come out of India recently that provides a heartwarming insight into the otherwise sad world of the continued poaching of the earth's tigers. In a staggering statistic, experts say that 97% of tigers have been lost to poaching and shrinking habitats. India has the world's largest numbers of tigers with about 1706 currently living there. There has been a major decline of this beautiful creature though since there were about 100,000 tigers in India at the turn of the last century.

With Father's Day rapidly approaching in the U.S. this sweet story reminds us of how important fathers can be in the rearing of their offspring. Recently in the Ranthambore tiger reserve in India, two baby tiger cubs lost their mother in February. This reserve is currently home to about 40 tigers. What is seen as an extremely rare show of paternal affection and caring has been demonstrated by a male tiger who forest officials in northern India say is the father.

This has been backed up by photographs taken of the male tiger with the two cubs by hidden cameras in the forest. The cubs who are about 8 months old now are still too young to make a food kill on their own. The male adult tiger has been seen with them while their are hungrily devouring a fresh kill. The male tiger makes no attempt to take away the food for himself. The cubs appear to be in very good health also.

In the wild, normally the mother tiger or tigress is the sole caretaker of her offspring. Male tigers will usually kill the cubs if they come across them. After the female gives birth the male tiger will only come around to try to mate with the female, nothing more. In fact male tigers rarely are allowed to even see their offspring because they tend to view the cubs as food. The behavior of this father tiger is completely unheard of. Officials say there is no recorded evidence of males behaving like this in the past.

Just when humans in their arrogant assumptions think they know everything there is to know about the world's tigers, a father tiger comes along and proves them wrong. This is an important realization that many animals are much more complex than man has ever given them credit for. It is high past time that we as the human animal in the world take a step down from our self appointed role as the supreme species. We must open our eyes wide to the possibilities that other animal species have so much more to teach us about our world and theirs.

Most importantly we must learn to share our world with them rather than continue to abuse, use or destroy them. After all they are our brothers/sisters created by the same loving Creator that also created the human race. Isn't it logical then that we would all share the same feelings of love and parental concern that man for so long thought was his exclusive claim?

Photo: National Geographic

Responses to "Wonderful story of a father tiger caring for his two cubs after their mother died."

  1. One of the most amazing, touching photos I have ever come across. With animals there are no mistakes. Love means love. We as humans should feel the same for them and we certainly can learn from them.

  2. Anonymous says:

    Beautiful heart warming story <3

  3. Anonymous says:

    Very heartwarming and touching. Animals have the advantage over humans due to the size of their brains. Humans have to over think everything and try to reason with their feelings. To animals, it's all basic instinct. Love in it's purest form is absolutely normal in the animal kingdom. Humans, on the other hand, look for benefits and rewards. How sad that we have such intelligence and have lost our instincts.

  4. Anonymous says:

    PLEASE PROVIDE US WITH MORE PICTURE OF THIS BEUTIFUL FAMILY .. BEEN CARE BY THE FATHER!!!!

  5. É estranho as pessoas ainda se espantarem com a forma como os animais vivem, eles já provaram há muito tempo que são mais civilizados que nossa pobre raça humana.

  6. Anonymous says:

    awesome!!!

  7. Anonymous says:

    it's not awesome!!!, it's sad

  8. Vigdis L says:

    Man the superior animal?? BAHHH!! We have SO much to learn from the others.. I can only hope we'll learn before it's too late

  9. saci says:

    so often I have commented that sadly animals do so many things better than we humans!!

  10. Elias says:

    Do siberian tiger fathers ever care for their cubs?

  11. Elias says:

    Do siberian tiger fathers ever care for their cubs?

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