The Royal Bengal cubs with their mother Shanti at Tata Steel Zoological Park on Friday. Picture by Bhola Prasad

Tata zoo prima donna Shanti is the proud mother of a girl and a boy.

The twin bundles of joy, born to the 17-year-old Royal Bengal tigress and her much younger beau Raghav on September 5, were released in the crawl area beside their cell on Thursday, for the first time in nearly two months.

“The sex of the cubs was ascertained three days ago when Shanti was not inside her breeding den. She has delivered a boy as well as a girl,” confirmed zoo vet Manik Palit as the little ones played with mommy.

According to Palit, the Royal Bengal cubs are “in the pink of their health” and will be released into the crawl zone for half an hour every morning. “De-worming of the cubs has been done, but vaccinations are pending. We will gradually increase the duration of their stay outside the den. Currently, it will be 9am to 9.30am,” he said.

Once the feline siblings are five months old, which is around three months from now, they will enjoy the maximum freedom a private zoo has to offer.

In short, the cubs will be released into the big cat enclosure.

“But, before we do that, the twins need to start feeding on beef. At present, they only drink milk. Shanti still has to suckle them. But, naughty as they are, the cubs do try to grab a beef bite from mommy’s platter,” Palit said, adding that Shanti was being served 8kg meat and four litres of milk every day so that she stayed healthy enough to breastfeed her cubs.

Taking a cue from the vet, a zoo caretaker said that the brother and sister were at their mischievous best on Friday morning.

“The royal twins wrestled with each other and when they got bored with that, they tugged at their mother’s tail. Shanti mildly rebuked them with a roar, but they couldn’t care less. The cubs are enjoying every second in the open,” he added.

But for Palit’s indisposition, the Royal Bengal cubs would have been released in the crawl area two weeks ago. The vet had broken his finger in a minor accident and had to be hospitalised, leading to the minor delay, said a zoo source.

Feline couple Shanti and Raghav has an elder daughter too. Princess Dona is two now.