A Sumatran Tiger cub born at Zoo Praha is getting supplemental feedings from zoo keepers because his mother is not fully caring for him, possibly a result of her tranquilization and evacuation during catastrophic flooding in the Czech Republic in June.

Photo Credit: Tomáš Adamec, Prague Zoo

Despite the cub’s rocky start, he is thriving.  Construction crews have halted repair work on the Tigers’ exhibit, which was damaged in the flood, to allow the mother, Surami, to bond peacefully with her cub.

The baby boy is the third generation of a Sumatran Tiger “dynasty” at Zoo Praha:  his father, Falco, was born at the zoo in 2007, and his grandfather, Dustin, was born there in 1994.

Sumatran Tigers are in peril in their native home in Sumatra, Indonesia.  Fewer than 400 of these cats are thought to remain in the wild, clinging to isolated patches of intact rain forest.