Tiger cubs born in Amersfoort zoo

Three Siberian tiger cubs were born in Dierenpark Amersfoort on Friday morning. This is mother Angara's first litter. Mother and cubs are doing fine. Head animal carer Willem Verdonck says that it will be exciting in the next few days to see how Angara handles her first litter. A 'whelp cam' has been set up to follow the daily life of this new family of the world's biggest cat species in the special birthing chamber that was built into the new tiger enclosure for the Amersfoort zoo half a year ago. The cubs will stay with their mother the first weeks of their life, and they will only meet their father in three months. The sex of the cubs is not yet clear. Handlers may get a chance to have a quick peek when mother Angara may want to go outside the den for a short time in a few days. The cubs' eyes will only open after two weeks. Then, after seven weeks, they might be ready to leave the comfort of the den to explore their outdoors. In the wild, Siberian tigers, or Amur tigers, are a highly endangered in their natural habitats, mainly in northeast Russia and northern China, where the current population is stable at around 450 individuals, according to WWF. Russia was the first country to grant full protection of these species. Siberian tigers are bred with the support of the Species Survival Plan (SSP). Breeding the endangered species in captivity helps keep the population up, The tigers were born, coincidentally, on the same day that a giraffe calf was brought into the world in a zoo in Limburg. A big day for wildlife. Below, a video of the birth at Amersfoort animal park: