Tiger Cubs Ready for Public Debut at Minnesota Zoo

Follow us on Twitter | Like us on Facebook | Sign up for our daily newsletter| Blog for us

The Minnesota Zoo announced that its two Amur tiger cubs made their first public appearance on Tuesday.

It's been a long road for the cubs, who have not yet been named. The zoo announced that a litter of two had been born in mid-June, but only one survived the critical first few days. To keep the baby company, the zoo brought in another cub, a transplant from the St. Louis Zoo. Zoo officials brought the female cubs together to promote socialization, since both had to be hand-reared by humans because their mothers did not successfully nurse them. The girls are now five to six months old, and almost off of bottles.

As of this week, they will be on exhibit during part of the day in the Tiger Lair along the zoo’s Northern Trail.

Though the two have been in seclusion, they are already minor celebrities, thanks to the Zoo’s live Tiger Cam and a popular tiger naming contest through the zoo's Facebook page. The contest ends in four days. If you want to submit a name, click here.