It is a busy time for local youngsters. Just as the city's children prepare to go back to school, three 4-month-old Siberian tiger cubs made their debut on Wednesday at the Bronx Zoo (see video below or click here).
The still-unnamed cubs, one male and two females, weighed about three pounds when they were born in late April and are now up to 45 pounds. They are the first litter born from the union of Katharina, 13, and Sasha, 15, though Katharina had children by a prior mate.
Siberian tigers, also known as Amur tigers and native to eastern Russia and northeastern China, are the biggest cats around. The males can grow to 650 pounds.
The cubs will be on exhibit intermittently for the first few weeks as they grow used to their surroundings, the zoo said, mostly based on whether the weather is fair. There is no way to call in advance and find out if the cubs are out.
As cute as they are, the cubs are part of the effort by the zoo's parent organization, the Wildlife Conservation Society, to educate people about tigers' critically endangered status worldwide: In the last century, the global wild tiger population has plummeted 97 percent to just 3,200 animals. Information about helping the society save tigers in the wild is available on the society's Web site.
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