Come September, the stork will visit Tata Steel Zoological Park's tiger enclosure in Jamshedpur.
Royal Bengal tigress Dona, 5, will have her furry bundles of joy in September, dad-to-be being Kailash, the resident seven-year-old white tiger. Tigresses normally have a 105-day gestation period and give birth to three-four cubs at a time, said zoo vet Manik Palit, who is monitoring Dona's pregnancy.
When a white (or bleached) and a Royal Bengal Tiger mate, there's only 1 per cent chance that any of the first litter would be a pigmentation variant. But, in the second, one or more offspring was sure to be white.
So, Dona's pregnancy has made Tata zoo's inch towards contributing to India's population of white tigers. At present, only around 100 white tigers exist in India.
A pigmentation variant of Royal Bengal Tiger, tigers like Kailash have the typical black stripes of the majestic yellow big cat, but with a white or near-white coat. White tigers are sighted in the wild from time to time in the states like Assam, Bengal and Bihar.
"Scientifically, there is a 1 per cent chance for Dona to deliver a white tiger in her first pregnancy but we can always expect the pigmentation variant in future," Palit, who takes daily rounds of the 1,490sqm tiger enclosure to supervise Dona's health,said.
Palit said he was very cautious when it came to Dona's health. "I am taking rounds of the tiger enclosure in mornings and evenings," he said. "It's the initial stage of her pregnancy."
Born on April 16, 2012, at Tata zoo, Dona has inherited the imperious temperament of her mother Shanti, the matriarch of the tiger enclosure who died this year at age 17.
Kailash, who was brought from Sri Venkateswara Zoological Park in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, in 2014, in an animal exchange programme as a future partner for Dona, didn't have it easy at first, to say the least. Dona snubbed the smitten Kailash with snarls whenever he approached her, leaving scratches on his face. But, things changed for the better when both mated last month.
Tata zoo now has four tigers, two of each gender. Dona and Kailash apart, there are two-year-old twins Aahana and Vivan, the last of Shanti's litter.
