why are piglets sleeping with this tiger?

What was the zoo trying to accomplish with this mmmm… therapy? Or just a gimmic to bring in crowds?

http://www.pbase.com/colind/image/32639321

Piglet sleeping with Tigger seems to make more sense…

Perhaps, and I am speculating, the tiger’s cubs had all died, and the zoo did not want her to despair, so the piglets were brought in as proxy cubs. This kind of thing does happen - see this article about a Chihuahua nursing an ophaned baby chipmunk.

Those are darling little tiger suits they’ve got on. :slight_smile:

That’s kind of what I thought. But why so many? Maybe in case momma decides bacon is on the menu?

Pooh will kill him if he tries anything…

Are the piglets actually living with the tiger? Maybe they just knocked the tiger out to take the shot. It does appear to be asleep after all.

Cross-species adoption isn’t all that uncommon.

I remember being heartbroken by an article I read about a lioness in Africa. She lived on a wildlife refuge, so her behavior was recorded by researchers. Her cubs had died, and she kept stealing gazelle babies from their herd, and taking them back to her den to raise as her own.

Unfortunately, the poor gazelle babies didn’t know what to do with the hunks of meat she brought them, so they kept starving. When one would die, the frustrated lioness would go steal another and try to raise it. I dunno what ever happened-- the last article I read said the researchers were considering intervening so that the lioness didn’t end up killing any more gazelles.

I would’ve guessed that it was just for the picture. Why does Anne Geddes have so many children that seemed to have been brought up by produce?

The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.

Isaiah 9:1,6

FWIW, the picture seems to be from the Sriracha Tiger Zoo in Thailand:

http://www.thaiwaysmagazine.com/pattaya_ad/tiger_zoo/tiger_zoo.html
http://www.thebigcats.com/news/2004_0702_tiger_pig.htm

From another tourist blurb: