Rare Tiger Gives Birth to 3 Cubs at National Zoo

The three cubs were born on May 24.

A news release from the zoo says no photographs of the cubs are available. The sexes of the cubs won't be known until their first veterinary exam, which is several weeks away.

The mother tiger, 13-year-old Soyono, has been off-exhibit for weeks because of the pregnancy.

Soyono also was born at the zoo. The father of the cubs is Rokan, a Sumatran tiger born at the San Antonio Zoo.

Sumatran tigers are the smallest tigers. They are endangered with fewer than 500 in the wild and 210 in zoos.

When they are born, tiger cubs are blind and weigh only about two pounds, the zoo says. They nurse for as long as nine months but begin to eat meat after about two months.

They won't be on display for several months. Rokan, the dad, is on display.

Another litter of Soyono's cubs -- three male cubs born in 2004 -- left the Zoo in January 2006 for their new home at Landry's Downtown Aquarium in Denver, the zoo's Web site says.

Soyono's first litter was a single male cub born in 2001.

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