A tiny Siberian tiger cub, believed to be the smallest in the world, is doing fine two weeks after her birth at a Siberian tiger farm in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.  

Su Weilin, a leading keeper with the farm, said that the four-year-old mother tiger gave birth to four cubs on Oct. 30. One was a female weighing 450 grams, one was stillborn, and two were male cubs weighing 950 grams and 1,350 grams.

The female cub, which weighed just one-third of the normal weight for a newborn cub, failed to respond when the mother tiger licked it on birth and was thus deserted.

Keepers took the tiny cub and felt a thin breath. They took emergency measures to save her, using a solar lamp to help dry the tiny tiger and massaging her.

The cub showed almost a normal heartbeat and temperature about three hours later, according to Su.

"The tiny cub is not fully grown and its skull is still not complete," said Su, who added that they have introduced an around-the-clock caring and monitoring system under which the tiny cub is fed with milk 20 times a day.

So far, the female Siberian tiger cub has reached a weight of 750 grams and has developed normal physiological features, according to Su.

(Xinhua News Agency November 14, 2003)