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Three Siberian Tiger cubs in poor health because of long-term calcium deficiency have been cured by nutritionists and are now in better condition in east China's Zhejiang Province.

The tigers, each four months old, were diagnosed Wednesday night and have since recovered their good spirits and appetite, according to caretakers in the Hangzhou Wildlife World, a wildlife park in Hangzhou City.

Thursday and Friday morning, each of them ate 0.15 kilograms of beef and 500 ml of milk. The most encouraging improvement was seen Thursday morning, when they could stand up again. For the previous three to four days, they could only lie on their sides.

The park called on the public for help Wednesday this week as the three tigers, who have not yet been named, were in serious condition. Since then, they have attracted attention from all across the country.

The Xinhua website also set up an online forum and received more than 1,000 messages in two days.

Wednesday night, an expert team led by Li Jinchang, a professor of animal nutrition from Zhejiang University, diagnosed the cubs as suffering from severe malnutrition.

Their mother, Hang Hang, abandoned the cubs after their birth in March, refusing to feed them. Fed by a dog, the tigers had been in poor health and had to be injected daily with a vitamin D3 supplement.

Half a month ago, the sale of vitamin D3 injections was stopped because it was found to cause harmful side-effects in human beings. Without the supplement, the tigers' condition deteriorated, from staggering to finally failing to stand up. Their average weight was about 10 kilograms, only half that of a four-month-old healthy tiger.

After the diagnosis of Li and his team, the cubs were given different calcium and other nutritional supplements.

Providing nutritious food for large mammal cubs in zoos has long been a problem for the academic community, according to zoologists, as it is common for large female wild animals to abandon their cubs after delivery, especially those giving birth for the first time in an artificial breeding environment.

The mother of the three tigers is now four years old and it was her first delivery.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has put Siberian tigers top on its list of the world's 10 most endangered animals. Because of problems including deteriorating environment, the number of Siberian tigers decreased by a large margin in the past years. Currently, there are less than 100 wild Siberian tigers worldwide and several thousand artificially tamed ones.

Now, Hang Hang is pregnant again and is expected to give birth soon, said the breeders in the park. Zoologists said that considering her previous behavior, she is very likely to abandon her cubs again.

(Xinhua News Agency July 11, 2003)