A black leopard cub at the Beijing Badaling Wild Animal Park Monday is currently being nursed by a surrogate mother dog. [Photo: Global Times]
The Beijing Badaling Wild Animal Park is recruiting female dogs to nurse a black leopard cub and four wolf pups whose mothers refuse to feed them.
The leopard cub was born on March 9, and three days later a wolf gave birth to four pups.
According to Wang Jianping, a park keeper, the two new mothers both refused to feed their offspring, in spite of persistent attempts by the cub and pups to latch on and nurse.
"We don't dare to go inside the cages to help," Wang said. "They are dangerous animals."
Instead, he explained, they utilized special gates that enabled them to lure the mothers into a separate space, and are already tending to the rejected offspring.
According to Wang and Fan Jinsong, the park's marketing director, the two mothers are refusing to feed their babies out of a lack of experience.
Xie Yan, a tiger researcher with the Institute of Zoology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was able to elaborate a little more thoroughly.
"In the wild, tigers will abandon their children in exceptional cases, and the chance is bigger when they are in captivity," Xie said.
He added that he assumed the problem for the park's new mothers might be related to a lack of space where the animals can exercise.
A mother dog kept as a pet by a park employee was brought in to nurse the leopard cub, but after the birth and rejection of the wolf pups, milk supply has become a problem.
"One dog cannot feed that many cubs and pups," Wang said, adding that milk from a live animal is better for the fragile digestion systems of the newborns.
"The cub and pups will keep the nipple in their mouth and suck it from time to time. If you use a bottle you cannot keep the milk fresh and it might go bad," he explained.
"Therefore, we want to borrow two or three gentle and healthy female dogs from Beijing citizens to feed the leopard and the wolves," Wang said. "The dogs will stay in the park for more than one month, until the cub and pups have their teeth."
Interested owners of lactating dogs who have birthed a litter within a week can call 6921-1842 for more information. The selected dog's puppies would nurse side-by-side with the rejected animals.
Already, the park has received some inquiries, according to Wang.
Kati Loeffler, a zoologist, vet and scientific advisor for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, believes that the problem the park is facing reflects not a lack of maternal experience, but that actually the mothers are too stressed to feed their babies because the park has done a very bad job in taking care of its animals.
According to Loeffler, feeding offspring is an instinct and is a female animal's most important function, therefore the need to find supplemental food for the cub and pups is an indication that there is something wrong with the care the animals are receiving at the park.
"So the real problem is why are these animals so stressed that they can't take care of their babies," Loeffler said, adding, "The issue is not bringing the dogs to feed the babies. The issue is taking care of the mothers so that they are able to take care of their own babies."
According to marketing director Fan, citizens who loan their dogs to the park to nurse the rejected cub and pups can visit the facility free of charge.
