(Another e-mail forward going around!)
Update: Sadly it seems that this is not actually true. The pictures are 'real' but the story is false as per the following from Dig Your own grave: Crazy Animal adoptions
"Although the Sriracha Tiger Zoo hosts one of the world’s most successful tiger breeding programs, unlike most western zoos it also offers circus and carnival-like shows, exhibits, and interactions, including the mixture of adults and young of different species in the same enclosures. The mixture of tiger and piglets depicted in the images was not something undertaken for functional reasons, but rather as a form of visual entertainment provided by the zoo for the amusement of its visitors. "
Plus a discussion on Snopes messenger board
E-mail forward: In a zoo in California, a mother tiger gave birth to a rare set of triplet tiger cubs. Unfortunately, due to complications in the pregnancy, the cubs were born prematurely and due to their tiny size, died shortly after birth.
The mother tiger started to decline in health, although physically she was fine. The veterinarians felt that the loss of her litter had caused the tigress to fall into a depression. The doctors decided that if the tigress could surrogate another mother's cubs, perhaps she would improve.
After checking with many other zoos across the country, the depressing news was that there were no tiger cubs of the right age to introduce to the mourning mother. The veterinarians decided to try something that had never been tried in a zoo environment.
Sometimes a mother of one species will take on the care of a different species. The only "orphans" that could be found quickly were a litter of wiener pigs. The zoo keepers and vets wrapped the piglets in tiger skin and placed the babies around the mother tiger.
Behold the cutest pictures EVER!
[this is good] I am sorry, that I interfere, there is an offer to go on other way.
Posted by: Eleazar Mccall | 2010.06.08 at 19:39