LAHORE: A black female bear has given birth to two cubs at the Lahore Zoo raising the total figure of black bears to nine. Officials said the black bears, found in hilly areas in Pakistan, are one of those animals which are most popular among children.

Officials said the births took place a couple of weeks ago, but the news was not made public because visitors would then pressurise the zoo administration to show them the cubs.

They said the new arrivals had not even been approached by the zoo keeper because the mother discontinued feeding the cubs if they were touched by others.

“Her highly possessive nature and furious attitude towards intruders in the cage sometimes results in death of cubs by her own hands,” he said.

Officials hoped that after a month or so they would be able to get closer to cubs to determine their gender.

Meanwhile, Uryal has also given birth to twin fawns. According to wildlife experts, the birth of twin fawns in captive breeding is considered to be a rare case.

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2015

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