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Woman suckles tiger cub

Thursday, 7 April 2005  |  richard dale

I read this article in today's Guardian.

Call it a touching act of altruism or a curious assertion of maternal capability, but the bottom line is 40-year-old Hla Htay is breastfeeding a Bengal tiger cub. ... As to why Ms Htay has offered her services, when bottled milk could do just as well? "I don't even want to go there," says Strike.

She would like to stop when the tiger cub grows teeth. But why would a tiger cub eat the breast that feeds her, even when it had grown teeth? Would a grown up tiger still eat humans if she had been breastfed?