Week 242 (11 - 17 April 2008)
Madonna gives birth, Hulooo returns to Laohu Valley
There was reason to celebrate this week. Madonna managed to give birth to two cubs on Saturday and on Wednesday Hulooo came back to Laohu Valley Reserve.
After waiting for a long time, Madonna gave birth to 2 cubs on Saturday, which was 4 days later than her expected date. On Friday night, Madonna stopped eating. At 3:00 the next morning, Madonna was seen pacing along the fence of the 9 ha camp. These symptoms indicated the birth. At 12:00, Madonna was still pacing and a bloody discharge could be seen around her vulva. During pacing, Madonna chuffed all the time at Li who was observing closely on the other side of the fence. At 15:35, the first cub was born. As this was Madonna’s first birth she never once lay down. When the cub came out, it frightened her. But driven by instinct , she began to lick the cub. When it moved, she again got a fright and jumped back almost a metre. Unfortunately, in the end Madonna still didn’t accept the maternity box and she began to pace along the fence of the 9 ha camp carrying the cub in her mouth. From time to time she put down the cub and licked it a bit during pacing. At 16:10, the second was born without Madonna even noticing, because she was busy pacing with the first cub. When the first cub was put down again, it was noticed that it was already dead. But Madonna kept licking it without paying any attention to the second one. When the second cub began to move, Madonna looked at it with surprise. After licking it for a while, she came back to the first cub. After a while, Madonna began to lick herself. She would lick the second cub occasionally but she spent all her time on grooming herself and paid very little attention to the cub. When the cub climbed on her looking for a nipple, she moved to about 1 m from the cub and continued to clean herself. After waiting and watching Madonna and her cub for quite a long time, it was decided to take the cub away from her. The cub was then taken out of the camp. It was a boy weighing 1.36kg. After having 20ml of artificial colostrum, some milk and other initial treatment, he was sent to the Lory Park Zoo. He managed to urinate and defecate normally on his way. Madonna was still pacing with the dead cub in her mouth when it was getting dark. One and a half hours later, she threw it away in the water trough. It was taken out the next day. It was another boy weighing 1.26kg. Madonna was put back into the 9 ha camp. Several days after giving birth, she still had not walked far away from the small camp. Every night, calling was heard from her, which sounded like she was calling for her cubs.
On Wednesday, Hulooo at nearly 5 months of age returned to Laohu Valley Reserve from Lory Park Zoo. He was placed in the small camp. Everything was new for him. He walked carefully out of the box and began to explore the new area. After a while, he sniffed every one in the camp one by one. The same day, he was given a fresh springbok leg. But Hulooo showed more interest to the camp. After sniffing at the leg for a while, he began to explore the camp again.
Everything was fine with Cathay and her cubs. Every morning and afternoon, she was allowed to relax in the quarantine camp. But she was staying with her cubs the rest of time. By now the eyes of both cubs have. They would stare and try to catch any movement when the breeding centre was being cleaned. 327 was still pacing with TigerWoods when he got a chance. Every evening, loud roaring from him could be heard. He is slowly becoming like a wild tiger.